STONEBORO PA – The 2016 Pennsylvania fair harness racing circuit started the last leg of its "western campaign" for the summer on Thursday in this town in the northwest portion of the state, and the theme of the day, devoted to two-year-old racing, was "sweeping," less in the sense of "cleaning" than of "cleaning up" the purses for a few stables, and one filly in particular.
The Dragon Again filly Camera Lady showed he's not superstitious as she paced to victory in 2:04, last quarter 30, to keep her undefeated in 13 starts across the state at its fairgrounds. The victory was her 14th overall in 15 career starts, as she took her mark of 1:58.1 (in her second start) in an overnight at The Meadows, the track at which she had her only loss, trying the "big big girls" in the state Sire Stakes, and race-timed in 1:56.3, in her fourth career trip to the gate.
After that, she's posted 11 consecutive victories along the fair circuit, setting a track record at Hughesville and establishing herself as the PA fairs' "season leader" with a 2:00.3 at Bedford. This 14th victory puts her only one win off the lead out of the entirety of North American harness horses, with two veterans at 15: pacing mare Velocity Vespa and the trotting gelding Mama Made Me Blue. And for being a "fair horse" with less than three months of racing under her girth, she's already bankrolled $32,143 for her owners, Mitchell York and trainer/driver "Smilin'" Dave Brickell.
Brickell and co-owner York had even more reason to smile when Camera Lady's compatriot Cajun Moonlite took the other division of the freshman filly pace for a stable "sweep." This victory was only the second for the daughter of Moon Beam (also sire of PA fair 3PF sensation Unbeamlieveable), but she's hit the board 11 times in 16 starts, with 15 checkgetting efforts totaling $14,685, and it was her second win in three starts, suggesting her stock is on the rise.
The "King Of The Pennsylvania Fairs," trainer/driver Roger Hammer, had a sweep – of sorts – of the two Sire Stake events for pacing colts. His Real Artist gelding Artists Ruffles, still the fastest horse of the Keystone fair season with his 1:57 win at Bedford, took his ninth win of his initial campaign with a 2:04.4 triumph in one division for owners Hammer and Vicki Fair; they are also the owners of the Delmarvalous gelding Marvalous Artist, who dead-heated for win in 2:06 in the other division with the Yankee Cruiser colt Air Quotes Hanover, owned/ trained, and driven by Aaron Johnston.
Hammer also won with his Broadway Hall gelding Toolbox Tuesday, he of the three track record performances on the fair circuit, to post a training/driving triple, tops for the day in the former category and tying in the latter stats with circuit leader Chris Shaw, who drove one winner for his brother Jason and two more for the McMullen stable.
The second day of the two-card stand at Stoneboro will take place Monday, with an informally agreed-upon edict of "no yawning" despite that card's 8:30 a.m. start. Helping that restriction will be the eagerly-awaited showdown in the three-year-old pacing colt ranks, with Star Of Terror and Dragon Strikes both putting six-race winning streaks on the line in the second event of the morning after being rained out at Wattsburg on Wednesday. After that card, the circuit swings east for its final three stops at York, Gratz, and Bloomsburg, leading up to the $200,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championship Night at The Meadows on Saturday, October 8.
Publicity Office, Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen's Association