Bangor Raceway hosts $324,426 Breeders Finals

CUMBERLAND, ME – The rich $324,426 Maine Breeders Stakes (MSBS) sophomore harness racing finals are in the books with 4-5 favorite Deal With It Roman (Western Maverick) taking the $81,079 MSBS 3-year-old colt & gelding pace in a lifetime best 1:57.3 at historic Bass Park on Saturday (Oct. 15) night.

Driven by Walter Case Jr. for owner/trainer/breeder Marc Tardif, Deal With It Roman performed admirably under the lights for the special evening card at Bangor’s Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway.

Scoring from post four Case put Deal With It Roman into gear as soon as the wings folded and pushed on to the top, with second choice Bandolito Blaze (Heath Campbell/Valerie Grondin) right alongside him going through the first turn.  Campbell ducked ‘Blaze’ into the two-hole for a millisecond just past the eighth pole but was right back out and moving to set a snappy 28 opening panel.

With Case begrudgingly yielding command, Campbell continued on the lead and landed at the half in 58.  Ugotaearnyrstripes (Dave Ingraham/Steve LaCasse) was the first to move into the outer flow, who managed to get to within a length of the leader into a 1:27.1 third stanza.

As the field rounded the final turn and moved into the home stretch Case tipped Deal With It Roman off his perfect cover trip and coasted home a winner by 1-1/4 lengths, paying $3.60 to win.

Bandolito Blaze hung on for second; Daughtry (Ron Cushing/Heidi Gibbs) was a hard charging third.

As advertised, the indomitable Wolverina (Cheyenne Hollywood) had things her own way in the $81,172 MSBS 3-year-old filly pace, picking up her twelfth consecutive triumph.  Driven by Nick Graffam for co-owner/trainer/breeder Mike Graffam (with Bill Arnold), the filly went off at 1-9 and performed as a heavy favorite should.

Leaving from post three the race appeared to be more of a training mile for the fantastic filly, with pressure coming in the form of Pembroke Legacy (Heath Campbell/Valerie Grondin) as the winner cruised to a 1-3/4 length victory in 1:58.

Wolverina paid $2.20 to win.  Pembroke Legacy finished second; CBF Fin (Dave Ingraham/David Crochere) was third.

The $81,014 MSBS 3-year-old colt and gelding trot was captured by point leader Katahdin Mark (Noble Venture) and driver Gary Hall who went right to the top and never looked back to prevail by 1-1/2 lengths.  Picking up his ninth seasonal victory, the son of and his trainer/driver Gary Hall set an opening panel of 30.4 and then put the field to sleep with a slow 1:03.4 half.

With Wild Venture (Ivan Davies) sitting in the catbird seat, only Chamorro (Drew Campbell/Valerie Grondin) took a shot at the leader while charging up the backside going into a 1:32.4 third panel, but soon found the pylons again and had to settle for second best.  Owned and bred by James and Betsey Kelley, Katahdin Mark paid $2.80 to win in 2:02.4.  Chamorro finished second; Wild Venture was third.

In the non-wagering event $81,161 MSBS 3-year-old filly trot, one of the four ‘Pembroke’ entrants found the winners circle for owner/breeder Bill Varney and trainer Valerie Grondin.

Driver Heath Campbell had pylon position Pembroke Faye (Pembroke Slugger) and never had an anxious moment once division leader Maplewood Slugger (Andy Harrington/John Nason) got parked and then went off stride going to the three-quarter pole.

The home-bred filly scored by four open lengths, taking a new 2:01.4 lifetime mark while winning her third race of the year. Maplewood Slugger came from twelve lengths back following her miscue to finish second.  It was a photo for third with Pembroke Booboo (Grondin) taking the show dough by a whisker over Show No Tears (John Nason).

For more information about the Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes, follow our facebook page @MaineBreedersAssociation, or go to the Maine State website here.

For complete race results, click here.

by Chris Tully, for the Maine Breeders Stakes