Team Shaw sweeps & Boots Dunn tribute

MEADVILLE PA – The second day of the 2016 fair meeting at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in this northwest Pennsylvania city, featuring harness racing three-year-olds in stakes competition, was held Tuesday – and appropriately started off with a ceremony, featuring the traditional driverless horse and gathering of the meet's horsemen, to honor Walter "Boots" Dunn, the legendary local horseman and friend to all who had passed away since 2015's Crawford County racing.

 

On the racetrack, it was Team Shaw, led by trainer Jason, who earned the spotlight by sweeping the Sire Stakes for sophomore pacers, on both the colt and filly side, and seeing its Unbeamlieveable, last season's winningest 2PF in North America, set a new Meadville track record with her victory in 2:00.4. However, in altering the record book, one only had to change the time from 2:01, the horse from Allstar Morning, and the date from 6-22-14 to 8-23-13, as the driver of the divisional recordbearer, driver Chris Shaw, remained the same. Unbeamlieveable, a daughter of Moon Beam owned by Jason's four-year-old son Mason, has seven fair victories in 2016 (she had 13 last season), and this track record goes alongside the local mark she set at Honesdale.

 

We focused on Jason in mentioning the Shaw sweep, which is unusual in that where you find Jason you usually find Chris, but the other 3PF winner was not driven by Chris, but by the veteran Roger Hammer: Gymnast Hanover, a daughter of Western Ideal co-owned by Mason and Amanda Shaw. Gymnast Hanover, although certainly no slouch with four fair wins this year, had often been in the shadow of stablemates Unbeamlieveable and Singalongwithbing – who finished second, with Chris driving, in this race, with another 5-time fair winner, Marvalous Jet, third in the 2:04.2 mile.

 

On the colt side, Star Of Terror continued his rampage, with his sixth victory in a row and eighth overall on the circuit, though the Hammer-guided Billy's Falcon, first-over to the victorious pacesetter, made him and driver Chris work for the one length victory in the day's fastest time of 2:00.2. The Western Terror gelding is owned by Fortunate One LLC. Rounding out the Shaw sophomore sweep in the pacing ranks was the Four Starzzz Shark gelding Prince Penrod, who led at every call for a 2:05.1 triumph for Jason, Chris and owner Mason.

 

On the trotting side, the fastest winner among the males were the Cantab Hall gelding OMG Hanover, a 2:03.3 winner for trainer/driver Todd Schadel, co-owner with wife Christine. OMG Hanover now has five fair wins, including his all-age track record mile Bedford; finishing 2-3 to him were the powerful Major Matter, who earlier equaled the all-age mark at Wattsburg, and Rail Kat, who saw his fair record of going undefeated in five starts at the Keystone twicearounds go by the boards.

 

Regal Woman won the faster of the two diamondgaited filly divisions in 2:05.1. The daughter of SJ's Caviar has visited Victory Lane on the circuit four times now for owner Dr. William Solomon, with Gary Johnston training and Aaron Johnston performing the sulky duty today.

 

There will be racing at three Pennsylvania ovals this coming week, with an overlapping date on Tuesday: the trotters and pacers will race at Indiana on Monday and Tuesday at noon, and at Wattsburg on Tuesday and Wednesday at 11 a.m. Then they will go straight to Stoneboro for the last "western-based" fair racing, on Thursday at 10 a.m. and on Labor Day Monday at 8:30 a.m., before "heading east" for the circuit's final three stops, at York, Gratz, and Bloomsburg.