STAC scholarship day at Tioga

Nichols, New York…September 9, 2024…Amateur harness racing clubs from across America gathered at Tioga Downs on. Sunday, (Sep 08), for a three race series enabling scholarship awards in the amount of $6,000 to be distributed during the festivities.

Southern Tier Amateur Club (STAC) President Jeff Schaefer rounded up other Clubs, including the Meadowlands Amateur Driving Club (MADC) and the Great Lakes Amateur Drivers Association (GLADA) long with Jeff Gural and added memorial events in honoring the memory of trainer Paul Bernardo, farrier Randall Ring, farrier Leon Cable, Hall of Fame Communicator Dave Brower  and Ethan Parker.

The scholarship winners were Nikki Stark, presented by Tioga Strong, Ryan Stark, presented by the STAC,  Liliana Regan, presented by GLADA, Logan Allen, presented by the United States Harness Drivers Club, Maggie Copp, presented by the MADC and Lily Sickler, presented by Jackie and Seth Parker.

On the racetrack, amateur driver Neil Glasser won the kickoff event while Steve Oldford captured the other two events.

Glasser took the opening event by overcoming the nine post to score a 16 to 1 upset with his own Thndrfrmtheethron N (Auckland Reactor N) in 1:57, carving up numbers of :28.3, :58.1 and 1:26.1 along the way to score by 3 3/4 lengths and rewarding his faithful with a $35.40 mutuel.

By the way, it was a milestone win for Glasser—his 100th career driving in.

Mike Watson trains the winner, who scored his fourth success of the year in 30 starts—the 10-year-old gelding now with seasonal earnings of $38,258, vaulting his lifetime bounty to $188,888 here in the US after his arrival in 2021.

Ponderance was second for Scott Woogen while pilot Billy Muggleston was next with Odds On Unicorn. The fastest closing Butter Up, driven by Lee Morris, was fourth while Tail Hook picked up the nickel for Steve Oldford.

Oldford stepped up to the plate in the next STAC event and closed quickest of all with the nine-year-old gelding Meadowbranch Ricky (Muscle Massive) to win in 1:58.1, his margin a half length over Raceme,  who cut the mile for Alan Schwarz with Manuka third for Robert Krivelin.

Beguin Dugoutier F was fourth for Robert Ciavardi while Everyone’s Talkin picked up the final award for Jeff Schaefer.

The winner is trained by Mike Deters, who co-owns with John Warner and John Manning and paid $3.60 to his multitude of faithful.

Meadowbranch Ticket now has a 2-5-5 scorecard in 29 starts, good for $25,480 this semester and $436,036 lifetime,

A few races later, it was the Oldford show all over again as he piloted the nine-year-old gelding Burn Notice (Cayenne Turbo) to a photo finish win (a head), nailing the pacesetting Midnight Dreams, handled by Joseph Skowyra, on the wire.

Muggleston was, again, third with his charge, Pax Hanover, while Majestic Sunset was next for Jack McNeil. Tech Titan was fifth for Lee Morris.

It was the third success of the season for the winner, who now has $21,200 in 2024 bounty and $188,317 career-wise. He paid $4.20 to win with the winner,  again, trained by Deters for owners Warner and Manning.

Oldford, whose career dates back to the late 1970’s, has been to the winner’s circle 208 times and, just recently, went over the $1,000,000 in earnings.

After the event, driver Steve Oldford lamented, “You know, it’s great to drive the winners once in a while but the over-riding factor in this entire day was the fact that we were able to assist young students who appreciate the help in the form of our scholarships. That supersedes everything!

“There are some many thanks to go around, beginning with Jeff Gural who put his blessing on this day…everyone from the four amateur clubs that participated to the racing secretary, Rob Pennington, who put them on the card.

“The hospitality was outstanding and it was an honor to participate.”

Trainer Mike Deters echoed Oldford’s comments saying, “Steve drove my horses absolutely perfectly. I gave him a couple of hints on how they race best and he drove them both perfectly…couldn’t have been better.

“You know, I have always been a proponent of amateur races and the good they do for our sport and this day put a stamp on that!”

In summing up the festivities, Jeff Schaefer said, “The day was memorable and couldn’t have been done without the help of a great team—especially, Randy and Taft of the Southern Tier Harness Horseman’s Association (STHHA) and Jamie Daley, who does incredible work on behalf of our horsemen here. The STHHA provided all of the blankets and the STAC took care of the trophies.

“It was a day that put the sport of harness racing in the winner’s circle up here and did so much good for our community.”

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by John Berry, for the Southern Tier Amateur Club