$100,000 DSBF Finals all week at Harrington

HARRINGTON, DE – The Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund (DSBF) $100,000 final events for 2-year-old harness racing horses will highlight the week (October 4-6) of racing at Harrington Raceway.

Tonight (October 4) will feature the final for male pacers as a George Teague Jr., Clyde Francis-trained duo drew the coveted inside posts in the contentious grouping.

It’s Above Me Now (3/1, Montrell Teague) and It’spronounced Jif (5/2, Ross Wolfenden) will start from post position one and two, both fresh off elimination wins by a neck on September 27.

The duo is sired by Southwind Lynx, who is also the sire of Kdk Standardbreds’ Heinikin Bythebay (9/2, Jason Thompson) who drew post eight, but is riding a 4-race win streak and joined It’s Above Me Now as the only ones to sweep their eliminations.

Heinikin Bythebay is trained by Kevin Switzer. The race is carded as the 5th on the 15-race program, which is the payoff leg for the early pick four (races 2-5).

Tuesday night will spotlight the pacing fillies, with dual elimination sweep victors set to square off. Let It Ride Stables’ Shabby Chic (7/5, Tim Tetrick) and Gty Stable’s Gaitway Gal (3/1, Pat Berry) figure to be the overwhelming favorites as the co-scourges of the division.

Shabby Chic, a daughter of Badlands Hanover, is 4-for-4 lifetime for trainer Mike Hall, while Delmarvalous-sired Gaitway Gal is 4-for-5 in her career for trainer Jeffrey Smith. A field of eight fillies will await the starting gate in the 5th race.

Trotters will take center stage Wednesday with the DSBF filly trotters lining up behind the gate in the 2nd and male trotters in the 4th.

The filly division is one of the more wide open splits in recent years as there were no repeat elimination winners. Fillies that prevailed in one of their two elimination divisions include Rod Allen’s Our Last Penny (Allen), Andrew Glassmeyer’s Franky Doyle (Pat Berry), Miss Timber Wolf (William Long), and Art Stafford and Art Stafford Jr.’s Just Pump It (Stafford Jr.).

Our Last Penny and Just Pump It are CR Commando-sired, while Franky Doyle is a daughter of Glidemaster and Miss Timber Wolf is Anders Bluestone-sired. Morning line odds were not available at the time of this writing.

The third leg of the early pick four will feature the male trotters as Stuart Chambers, Bcjm Stables, Divine Horse Racing and Cinebrew Enterprises’ Wolfpack Russ (Corey Callahan) will look to extend his win streak after two straight elimination wins for trainer Nick Callahan.

The Glidemaster gelding will start from the rail alongside another elimination winner in Stafford Jr. and Wyatt Starkey’s Navy Blue (Stafford Jr.), who is a son of Anders Bluestone and notched his 1st career win in his second career start on September 29.

Nanticoke Racing’s LG’s Reed O Wen (Jim Morand) will attempt to overcome post 7 and bounce back from a miscue in his September 29 division when he broke behind the gate but rallied to finish third. The Anders Bluestone gelding had won 3 straight prior to that for trainer Les Givens. Only he and Wolfpack Russ have as many wins in the field.

Post time nightly is 4:30 p.m. Live racing will continue on a Monday through Wednesday schedule until October 20.

by Matt Sparacino, for Harrington Raceway