WHAT's INSIDE . . . Freshmen Vie in Governor's Cup Elims
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017 ©2017 HORSEMAN PUBLISHING CO., LEXINGTON, KY USA • FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CALL (859) 276-4026 Freshmen Vie In Governor’s Cup Elims Eliminations for the Fall Final Four for 2 year olds are on tap Saturday night at the Meadowlands. Each elim for the Governor’s Cup for colt pacers, the Three Diamonds for filly pacers, the Valley Victory for colt trotters, and the Goldsmith Maid JGS Photo for filly trotters carries a purse of $20,000. With 11 names dropped in the box for the Governor’s Cup, the connections of Breeders Crown champ Stay Hungry, the richest entrant, took a bye. Three other Crown finalists are back for the Governor’s Cup, including beaten favorite Lost In Time, who finished 6p5, third-place “Everybody else finisher Closing Statement, and might have the Dorsoduro Hanover, who fin- mindset to not do ished seventh. anything stupid The top nine finishers in the and try and be Governor’s Cup elimination will top nine, so I can join Stay Hungry in the $411,700 position myself final scheduled for Saturday, and race my Nov. 25. The elim winner will horse to win the draw from posts 1-6, with the race.” rest included in an open draw. –Scott Zeron Lost In Time is in a new East Coast barn after having been WHAT’S INSIDE . sent by Ohio-based trainer (and co-owner) Jim Mulinix to Excluded trainers’ horses race at Big M—pg. 2 Jimmy Takter a couple of weeks ago. Lost In Time, whose four wins in seven starts this year include the $660,960 Large number of entries lead to byes—pg. 4 Metro final, will have his work cut out for him after drawing Fourth Dimension looking for rebound—pg. 6 post 10 in the elim. Fear The Dragon not headed to Matron—pg. 8 “Having to be in the top nine is great in the fact that we Zeron heading south for the winter—pg. 8 aren’t going for a lot of money in the elim,” said Scott Zeron, who drives Lost In Time. “Everybody else might “He’s coming along really good; last week he raced great,” have the mindset to not do anything stupid and try and be said driver Yannick Gingras. “He is a real nice horse.” top nine, so I can position myself and race my horse to Gingras said his race strategy will be determined when the win the race. The 10 hole at the Meadowlands is not the wings of the gate fold. end of the world.” “Yes, it’s nice to win the elim because you get to draw Immediately to Lost In Time’s left on the starting gate in for a good post, and you don’t want to underestimate post 9 is the lightly-raced American History, who is three- that,” said Gingras. “Most times with a lightly-raced horse for-three in his abbreviated career. The Governor’s Cup is a against horses that are a little more advanced than he is, big step up in class for the son of American Ideal who has it makes it harder, no doubt. I’m not going to go crazy and breezed through a trio of overnights, including a 9 ¼-length send him down the road or anything like that, but maybe romp in 1:52.3 on Nov. 11 at the Meadowlands. The time behind the gate I can get a spot in the middle. If not, I’ll missed by just one-fifth of a second equaling his career race him on the end of it and hope for a better post next mark set in his Oct. 19 debut at Hoosier Park. week.”—By Gordon Waterstone HarnessRacing Weekend Preview, 2 of 10 November 17, 2017 www.harnessracing.com Springsteen, Lady Shadow FREE Approved To Race At Big M Program THIS WEEKEND’S Although trainers Rene Allard and Richard Banca are on Pages FEATURED RACES the excluded list at the Meadowlands, two horses they are involved with are competing on Saturday night’s card. All times listed are local. The 2-year-old colt pacer Springsteen, a private purchase Saturday, November 18 in September in part by Allard Racing and now trained by 7:57p M3 Three Diamonds 2FP elim Trackmaster PPs Allard, was entered in the Governor’s Cup and will start 8:40p M5 Goldsmith Maid 2FT elim Trackmaster PPs from post 6 in Saturday’s elimination. The 6-year-old pacing 9:22p M7 TVG Mares Pace Trackmaster PPs mare Lady Shadow, recently purchased in part by trainer 9:45p M8 Valley Victory 2CT elim Trackmaster PPs Banca, will start from post 6 in the final preliminary of the 10:27p M10 Governor’s Cup 2CP elim Trackmaster PPs “I can assure you that TVG Mares Pace. Click here to download all Saturday PPs both horses will be On paper it appears Allard monitored closely and Banca circumvented the Visit www.trackmaster.com and samples will be Meadowlands ban by trans- and subscribe to download sent to Hong Kong.” ferring their horses to trainers full cards from your favorite tracks! Mark Harder and Mark Ford, –Jeff Gural about Spring- respectively, for Saturday’s steen and Lady Shadow races. Meadowlands owner Post Position Wins at The Meadowlands Jeff Gural explained to Weekend Preview on Wednesday after- PP 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 noon that while the trainer exclusions are still in place, he starts 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 21 19 7 agreed to the barn changes after a phone call from Allard. win 4 2 1 2 4 5 4 2 1 0 “Rene called me after he bought Springsteen and I told place 3 4 3 0 4 1 3 3 4 0 him he wouldn’t be allowed to race him here unless he show 2 2 1 7 1 2 7 3 0 0 gave the horse to a different trainer,” said Gural. “He ad- Percent in Money vised me that he was planning on giving the horse to Mark win 16.0 8.0 4.0 8.0 16.0 20.0 16.0 9.5 5.3 0.0 Harder and we allowed it.” place 28.0 24.0 16.0 8.0 32.0 24.0 28.0 23.8 26.3 0.0 show 36.0 32.0 20.0 36.0 36.0 32.0 56.0 38.1 26.3 0.0 Prior to being sold via an online auction, Lady Shadow had been trained by Ron Adams, who was also on the excluded list at the Big M. Disagreement on Lady Shadow’s Meadow- lands eligibility between Gural and co-owner Howard Taylor, an attorney, was debated publicly many times, especially after Lady Shadow was disqualified from her win in the Betsy Ross at Harrah’s Philadelphia as a result of a positive test. Although Lady Shadow raced in the July 15 Golden Girls and finished second, she was banned from racing in the HarnessRacing Weekend Preview Aug. 5 Lady Liberty after the positive test was announced. Kathy Parker Heather Kemper “I assumed Lady Shadow wasn’t going to be racing after [email protected] [email protected] Richie Banca bought the horse since he also isn’t allowed to Editor/ General Manager Production Manager race, but Mark Ford called me and told me he had been Lynne Myers Hannah Reynolds given the horse to train,” said Gural. “Since we were allow- [email protected] [email protected] Advertising Manager Editorial Production ing Springsteen to race we tried to be consistent.” Gordon Waterstone Vanessa Flannery Gural said a close eye will be kept on Springsteen and [email protected] [email protected] Lady Shadow. Associate Editor Accounting & Circulation “I can assure you that both horses will be monitored closely For mail sent via U.S. Postal Service, either P.O. Box 8480, Lexington, KY 40533, and samples will be sent to Hong Kong,” said Gural. “And all or 1910 Harrodsburg Rd., Suite 200, Lexington, KY 40503. (859) 276-4026 of the races next week will be out of the detention barn.” © Copyright Horseman Publishing Company. Gural said he is considering an easing off of his exclusion A product of Horseman Publishing Company, publishers of the website policy. www.harnessracing.com and The Horseman And Fair World magazine. “I do intend to revisit our policy going forward as owners This newspaper may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior written permission. who want to give horses to trainers who are not permitted to race here probably should be allowed to race,” he said. “My guess is I’m going to change the policy next year and be To sign up for the Weekend Preview please visit done with it and the controversy.”—By Gordon Waterstone www.harnessracing.com/members_sign_up.php HarnessRacing Weekend Preview, 4 of 10 November 17, 2017 www.harnessracing.com Despite forgoing a chance to draw from posts 1 through 6 Bye, Bye, Bye for the Three Diamonds final, driver Yannick Gingras be- While 40 two-year-old pacers and trotters will be in ac- lieves Youaremycandygirl deserves the week off. tion in Saturday night’s Fall Final Four eliminations at the “The week off definitely doesn’t hurt, especially at this time of Meadowlands, six are on the sidelines after receiving a year anytime you can give a week off,” said Gingras. “(Youare- bye directly in the Nov. 25 finals. Stakes conditions pro- mycandygirl) is basically going to race two weeks from the vided that if the number of entries “The week off definitely Breeders Crown and Matron, and then 16 days landed between 11 and 13, the richest doesn’t hurt, especially at to this, it’s perfect for her.