The stars of harness racing will light up the night sky in Lexington on Saturday with the two and three-year-old pacers dominating the twelve-race card.
The Bluegrass freshman colt pacers cover five divisions for a total purse of over $425,000 and yes, the 'Captain' is in the house. Trainer Tony Alagna and racing manager Myron Bell have directed Captaintreacherous through a nearly flawless campaign for owners Brittany and White Birch Farms, Marvin Katz and Joe Sbrocco, picking up the hardware for the Wilson and the Metro and nearly $750,000 along the way.
The Somebeachsomewhere colt has three sub-1:50 wins to his credit and comes into the race after a brief freshening. The main competition appears to be PA Sires Stake champ Good Day Mate and Canadian invader Apprentice Hanover in the eleventh race on Saturday.
Wake Up Peter resides in the Alagna barn as well and has not generated the headlines that his stablemate has, but does show sneaky good lines and may well be the horse to beat the another Bluegrass division (race 12).
Earlier on the program, Bob McIntosh has Dress The Part looking primed for success in the first Bluegrass division (race 2). He'll hook Dedis Dragon, a colt on the improve from the Ronnie Burke stable and Dovuto Hanover, who has apparently recovered from an absolutely withering trip in the PA Sires Stake final as the 1-2 favourite.
Race 3 is another division and Fool Me Once makes his state-side debut for trainer Mark Austin. Our Dragon King is a very good PA colt from the Sam De Pinto barn and the path to the winner's circle may well go through him.
The fifth freshman division features the really fast Odds On Equuleus, trained by Robin Schadt for Dana Parham's Odds On Racing. He missed in the Metro final by just a neck is an obvious favourite in his division. Johnny Rock and Rockin Amadeus provide the competition here.
Also on the big Saturday card are the three-year-old pacing colts and most of the marquee players have shown up to race for $100,000 in each of the two divisions.
NA Cup winner Thinking Out Loud will again square off with the winner of the Meadowlands Pace, A Rocknroll Dance in the seventh race. Those two have had more scraps than Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard and lived to tell of it. In division two (race 10), Sweet Lou and Bolt The Duer will tee it up another time.
The pacing fillies split into two $70,000 divisions and the divas are all in attendance. The fifth race pits Jugette winner Darena Hanover against world record setter from the Jugette first heat Shelliscape, NYSS/Valley Forge champ Romantic Moment and top PA talent Big Mcdeal.
The other split (race 8) features the remarkable American Jewel facing off against PASS final winner Economy Terror and the darling of New Jersey Sarandon Blue Chip.
Saturday’s first post is 7 p.m.
(The Red Mile)