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Skowhegan, Maine …. Longevity does not always equal success and vice versa, but on those magical occasions when the two match up, exceptional things can happen.
Such is the case with Grand Galop Semalu (Rock N Roll Heaven), a thirteen-year-old standardbred who has built his sterling reputation performing mostly on the the racetracks of Maine and New England and who on Friday (August 15), won for the 70th time in his harness racing career at the Skowhegan State Fair.
In harness to driver/trainer/owner, Andy Harrington, the veteran son of Rock N Roll Heaven who has become a patient rally specialist as his career matures, returned to the preferred strategy of his youth, putting them all in line after the briefest of tussles, and refusing to be headed while cruising through even, yet dominating fractions.
So authoritative was his bid that he only suffered the indignation of a mere perfunctory challenge from He Can Rock (Kevin Switzer, Jr) as the rest of the field resigned themselves to a pine checked journey once the crafty master made point.
Grand Galop Semalu cruised to the wire, three-lengths the best, stopping the timer in 1:57.4, and returning a $6 win ticket to his ardent backers.
“Today we celebrate the grand boy!” exclaimed Harrington’s wife Sara, “I don’t believe we’ve had him on the front since we’ve had him. Seems as though he knew the job from there today. He’s a classy old boy”.
Harness racing returns to the Skowhegan State Fair on Sunday (August 16) with a power-packed twelve race program scheduled for a 1:00 pm post time as the mid-Maine exhibition reaches its crescendo.
Saturday’s performance will be anchored by the $15,000 renewal of the Hight Invitational featuring three former Maine Sire Stakes standard bearers: Call Me Maverick (Michael Stevenson), the freshman and sophomore champion of 2020 and 2021; Two Fold Cold (David Ingraham), the 2024 sophomore champion; and So Rock N’ Roll (Bruce Ranger), the runner-up in the 2023 sophomore stakes final.
After the excitement of Skowhegan, Maine’s fairground circuit will take a six-day breather until setting up camp at the great Windsor Fair. Windsor’s nine-day race meet commences on Saturday (August 23) and will continue on a daily basis through Labor Day with the exception of Wednesday (August 27) which will be dark. Weekend post times will be at 1:00 pm (EDT) while the weekday cards will commence at 3:00 pm.
For those not able to come to the track, wagering on the Skowhegan Fair will be available on most major wagering platforms including Hollywood Races at www.hollywoodraces.com as well as at all state of Maine off track betting parlors.
The video for Windsor’s races will be live-streamed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@
For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.
by Mike Sweeney for Skowhegan State Fair
