HUGHESVILLE PA – After two months and two days of being blessed with good weather, the Pennsylvania Fair Circuit finally experienced its first 2016 rainout on Saturday, when a harness racing card for three-year-olds was washed out by intermittent hard rains at the beginning of a special 2-Day Sire Stakes meet at the Lycoming County Fairgrounds.
But come Sunday, the rains stayed away, the sun was out – and Camera Lady was ready for her closeup.
The daughter of Dragon Again became the first two-year-old in North America to get to ten victories when she won her heat of the two-year-old pacing filly Fair Sire Stakes, and she did it in style, setting a new Hughesville track record of 2:01.4 for her division, lowering Nuclear Photo's 2011 mark by a tick. Dave Brickell, also trainer and co-owner with Mitchell York, was in his usual seat behind Camera Lady as the baby distaff dashed home in 29.4 to post her ninth fair win in as many starts – next-closest in that category are the star three-year-old pacers Devious Behavior and Star Of Terror, each with six Keystone twicearound wins.
Fastest time of the day was the 2:01.3 victory in a division of the colt pace by Ounce Hanover, in rein to Steve Schoeffel; the other cut of that Sire Stakes division's action was won in 2:02.2 by Friendly's Scooter, driven by USTA District 7 Chairman and PHHA President Sam Beegle. On the trotting side, Crazy Clyde went in 2:08 for driver Brady Brown to give him four straight wins at the fairs.
Schoeffel and Wayne Long each drove and trained two winners to take top honors during the abbreviated meet.
The state Fair Circuit now heads westward for the latter part of August, starting with two days of action today and tomorrow at the Washington County Fair, over the oval known better as Arden Downs; then they backtrack eastward a bit for more fair action at Dayton PA on Wednesday and Thursday.
FINISHING LINES – Ironically, prior to Saturday's cancellation the only race lost to any situation all year at the fairs also came at Hughesville, during its mid-July fair meet. A field of two-year-olds for the seventeenth and final race of the day was getting ready to head gateward when half the field needed equipment checkup, delaying the start. After he went to his infield trailer and was rerigged, he had just stepped foot back onto the racetrack, ready for a start, when the attendant ambulance crew got a call on a local emergency and had to leave the fairgrounds; after 15 minutes of getting reports on the ambulance's situation while the two babies jogged around the oval, it was determined that the ambulance was not soon to return, and the race was cancelled.
Publicity Office, Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen's Association