Many dignitaries were on hand Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 11) at Batavia Downs to draw post positions for the eight divisions of the $1.8 million New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) that will be held during the Night of Champions on Saturday night (Sept. 14).
Kelly Young, who is the executive director of the Agriculture and New York State Horse Breeding and Development Fund, joined the director/general manager of live racing at Batavia Downs, Todd Haight in welcoming New York State Assemblyman Stephen Hawley to ‘The Downs’ to serve his constituents in a little different fashion. Hawley was the honourary drawmaster for the event and pulled pills alongside the president of the Western New York Horseman’s Association, Bruce Tubin.
Eight full fields of eight will pit 64 of the best horses bred in New York that were decided as a result of their competition throughout the state all summer.
Notable participants, as expected, are three-year-old trotting colt Gimpanzee (Chapter Seven-Steamy Windows) 1:52.4 ($1,145,996), three-year-old pacing filly Zero Tolerance (Heston Blue Chip-Feelinglikeastar) 1:50.2 ($868,236), three-year-old trotting filly Quincy Blue Chip (Chapter Seven-Sirenuse) 1:53.2 ($562,930), three-year-old trotting filly Winndevie (Credit Winner-Vida De Vie) 1:54 ($467,932), three-year-old pacing colt Shakethathouse (American Ideal-Shake That Junk) 1:47.4 ($452,804), three-year-old pacing colt Hickfromfrenchlick (So Surreal-My Girls A Star) 1:48.4 ($414,427), two-year-old trotting filly Hypnotic Am (Chapter Seven-Daydream Am S) 1:53 ($273,957) and two-year-old pacing colt Groovy Joe (Roll With Joe-Chotat Milk) 1:52 ($174,595).
The fields appear below.
Three-Year-Old Pacing Fillies
(Post - Horse)
1 Hurrikane Norakane
2 So Awesome
3 Sulky Queen
4 Brooklyn Lilacs
5 Crazy Cute
6 JK American Beauty
7 Zero Tolerance
8 DD Delicious
Three-Year-Old Trotting Fillies
(Post - Horse)
1 Blue Ribbon Gal
2 Stella Jane
3 Quincy Blue Chip
4 With Out A Doubt
5 Sweet Chapter
6 Pilgrims Lass
7 Sensibility
8 Winndevie
Two-Year-Old Pacing Fillies
(Post - Horse)
1 The Fun Marshall
2 Movie Town
3 Cash Roll
4 So Rude
5 Racine Bell
6 Hidden Cove
7 Merga Hanover
8 Galleria Gal
Two-Year-Old Trotting Fillies
(Post - Horse)
1 Hushabye
2 Hypnotic Am
3 Seventimesalady
4 Without A Warning
5 Really Blue Chip
6 Soprese
7 Illdoitmyself
8 Love A Good Story
Two-Year-Old Pacing Colts & Geldings
(Post - Horse)
1 Sandys Bolt
2 Freedom Warrior
3 Save Me A Dance
4 Splash Brother
5 Cigars And Port
6 Hurrikanekingjames
7 Level up
8 Groovy Joe
Two-Year-Old Trotting Colts & Geldings
(Post - Horse)
1 Beerthirty K
2 Sky Castles
3 Hobbs
4 Third Shift
5 Barn Holden
6 Berkery J
7 Chaptima
8 Bourbon Express
Three-Year-Old Trotting Colts & Geldings
(Post - Horse)
1 Cavill Hanover
2 Lucky Weekend
3 Powerscourt
4 Captain Krupnik
5 Livinonthedash
6 Travel Winner
7 Gimpanzee
8 Winnerup
Three-Year-Old Pacing Colts & Geldings
(Post - Horse)
1 Hickfromfrenchlick
2 Major Blake
3 Arties Ideal
4 Shake That house
5 Buddy Hill
6 Major March
7 Reining Deo
8 Rollwithpapajoe
(Batavia Downs)
The Canadian Trotting Classic
The Canadian Trotting Classic and several other major stakes races for trotters are also being held on Sat. night, at Mohawk. It's interesting that the 2 best harness racing cards in North America on Sat. are being held at 2 tracks which are within a couple hours drive of each other!