Maine Sire Stakes head Cumberland Friday card

CUMBERLAND, ME – The Maine-bred trotters return to First Tracks Cumberland on Friday (June 28) for two $16,000-plus divisions of the Maine Sire Stakes, where the Athearn’s My Saving Grace will try to make it two-in-a-row as she takes on a handful of harness racing fillies in the opener.

The action starts Friday with a single non-betting race at 2:45 pm for Maine-sired 3-year-old male trotters, where Mark and Gretchen Athearn also send last week’s winner Carabassett (Boy Band).  The sophomore drew pylon position in the early race and hopes that spot will allow for another wire-to-wire rout where he took a new mark of 2:03.2 for owner Pat Leavitt.

Then the 12-race card opener features the $16,208 3-year-old filly trot, which is a rematch between last week’s victor, My Saving Grace (7-5, Mark Athearn) and last year’s 2-year-old filly champion Pembroke Breeze (6-5, Heath Campbell), who finished second last time out.  Both fillies are intimately familiar with each other, having sparred over ten times and have traded victories almost equally.

Friday’s (June 28) card (post time 3:15 pm) also includes a tribute race, in memory of Frank Dubreuil in race 4, as well as a $5,000 guaranteed 50-cent Pick-4 (races 9-12) with a low 16-percent take out.

Looking ahead to Saturday (June 29), Cumberland welcomes back the 3-year-old pacing colts for another round of Maine Sires Stakes action, with two $16,000-plus divisions going postward as races one and three.

Leading the charge in the first division is the even money favorite Ella V Fella (Kevin Switzer-Marc Tardif).  A winner of three of five races this season, he leaves from post one and will have to contend with the hard-charging Hesjustadelight (2-1, Ron Cushing) from post five.

In the second $16,482 division the rail-sitting favorite Justcallmebuck (2-1, Heath Campbell-Gary Hall) could very well have things his own way from the inside.  Winner of his last two stakes and three overall, the gray son of Deuce Seelster is clearly on a roll.  Likely to be his biggest threats are a one-two punch from the Tardif Taskforce in Wes’s Challenge (3-1, Walter Case Jr.) and Two Fold Cold (7-2, Kevin Switzer Jr.), who are both winners in their last outings.

Also on Saturday’s 12-race program of full fields includes the featured overnight $6,000 top pace with So Rock N’Roll putting his 7-race win streak on the line in race nine.  In addition, the $5,000 division of the Maine Amateur Driving Club (MADC) goes as race five on Saturday.  The MADC is sponsored by the Blue Seal Feed Stores of North Yarmouth and Windham, Maine.

The First Tracks Cumberland meet continues throughout the summer months with regular racing on Friday and Saturday each weekend during the extended pari-mutuel meeting, which runs through August 3.

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by Chris Tully, for First Tracks Cumberland