Southwind Mozart, one of a trio of entrants from the barn of trainer Ake Svanstedt, has been installed as the 7-5 morning line favourite for the $50,500 Charles I. Smith Final for three-year-old trotting colts on Thursday (September 17) at Freehold Raceway.
The Smith and the $35,000 Harold Dancer for two-year-old colts are both restricted to New Jersey-sired trotters and are sponsored by the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey. The ‘Smith’ will also be contested on Thursday at 12:10 p.m., prior to the betting card.
Svanstedt trainees Southwind Mozart (by Muscle Hill), Natural Kemp (Muscles Yankee) and Crescent Fashion (Muscle Hill) are separate betting interests, as are a pair of Ray Schnittker trainees, Switchblade Hall (Muscles Yankee) and Broken Record (Muscles Yankee). Also entered is the Noel Daley protégé Mountain Top (Muscle Hill).
Southwind Mozart’s performance in the $500,000 Yonkers Trot (third across the wire, but placed second) in his last start on September 5 helped to elevate his status. He has now finished first or second in five of 12 starts this year and has a career bankroll of $200,540 for the Wolfgang A Stable Inc. of Vero Beach, FL.
Carded as Race 3 on the card, the Charles I. Smith’s field of six appears below
1 – Mountain Top, George Brennan, 4-1
2 – Southwind Mozart, Daniel Dube, 7-5
3 – Natural Kemp, Lucas Wallin, 7-1
4 – Crescent Fashion, Scott Zeron, 5-2
5 – Switchblade Hall, Steve Smith, 30-1
6 – Broken Record, Ray Schnittker, 6-1.
The Smith stakes record of 1:55.4 was set by Flex The Muscle (Muscles Yankee) in 2010.
The field for the four-horse Harold Dancer Trot appears below
1 – Steed, Daniel Dube
2 – Inukchuk Chuck, Julie Miller
3 – Stayin Strong, Eric Abbatiello
4 - Luv At First Site, Kyle DiBenedetto
The stakes record of 1:59 for the Harold Dancer was established by Chapter Seven in 2010.
(SBOANJ)