MEADVILLE PA – Four “ladies” took center stage Saturday and Sunday at the Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes harness racing event at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in this northwestern Pennsylvania city.
The first to shine was the International Moni – Nightflix Hanover mare H Moni Winner, who improved A Little Laid Backs Standard’s Meadville record for young trotting fillies from 2:04.1 set in 2015 to 2:03.2. Chris Shaw sat behind the mare for the first time in Saturday’s two-year-old race, and he and H Moni Hanover hit it off right away with trainer Dana Kahrig and owner Joseph Burkholder.
21-year-old Elizabeth Snyder was not originally scheduled to ride Golden Magic in Saturday’s final race, but trainer (and her father) Doug Snyder had her compete for her first outing in what was as low-pressure a situation as possible for a rookie – a no-contest race. Elizabeth accomplished the task with the Always B Miki Filly – which immediately increases her UDR to 1,000.
The three-year-olds came to race on Sunday, and in the very first race of the day, Betting Line’s mare Showboat Hanover, winner of the 2023 Fair Championship, broke the track record of 2:00.3 (held by two very good mares named Unbeamlieveable and Camera Lady) for her group by circling the Meadville twice in 1:59, setting the fastest time of the meet. Trainer/driver Todd Schadel is also co-owner of Showboat Hanover along with his wife Christine and Caitlin Solt.
Schadel’s blue and white colors were back in full force in the three-year-old fillies’ trot, winning one of the “A” sections and both “B” sections. If you had to guess which of these winners would lower his section’s standard to 2:01.1, just coming close to Classicality’s Meadville trot record of 2:01 set in 2013, you would be forgiven for picking Loveyoubunches, who set four fair track records this summer and won the “A” section.
The correct answer, however, would be a winner of the “B” division! The International Moni The mare Jakarta Hanover, winner of a division of the Lady Suffolk Trot at Freehold, visited the fairs and promptly set her time of 2:01.1 for owners Todd Schadel and Jim Simpson (a good day for the Hall of Famer, who also owned a Stallion Series winner in Philly).
There are no points for guessing who the leading driver and trainer was at Meadville (hint: it was the same person), but drivers Eric Neal and Chris Shaw, who each had four winners, and trainer Tom Loughry Jr., who harnessed three winning horses, also had outstanding performances.
After eight cards in eight days, even the Pennsylvania Fair Circuit can now take a break. A very short break – on Tuesday the tickets will be drawn for the Indiana PA races on Thursday and Friday, with both cards scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
Click here to view the full race results: Results of the US Trotting Competition.
From the partnership between PFHHA, PHHA and MSOA
