Caviar Gold, El Toro Loco win $96,884 Currier & Ives

WASHINGTON, PA, June 18, 2022 – Caviar Gold (Triumphant Caviar) zipped to the point from post 6 and widened late to capture a harness racing division of Saturday’s (Jun. 18) $96,884 Currier & Ives at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows. El Toro Loco (Walner) went from worst to first in the lane to take the other split in the Grand Circuit event for 3-year-old colt and gelding trotters.

Caviar Gold won the Hackett final and an Ohio Sires Stake division before throwing in a couple clunkers in overnights, prompting a shoe change. He had no trouble grabbing The Meadows surface and continued to draw off despite an apparently insurmountable lead.

Trainer Chris Beaver said he asked winning driver Aaron Merriman to keep Caviar Gold busy.

“Aaron was rolling him along because if you don’t keep his attention, you can have a problem,” Beaver said. “He’s well staked at the end of the season. We try to get through the Ohio Sires Stakes, make the finals and then think about the Grand Circuit.”

Up Blueberry Hill was second, 4 lengths back, with Pappardelle (a Beaver trainee) third. Beaver bred Caviar Gold, who now has banked $170,721, and owns with Bill Manes, Leo Fleming and Steven Zeehandelar.

CAVIAR GOLD REPLAY

The victory extends a record of uncommon Currier & Ives success for Beaver. He won it last year with Perron and in 2017 with Fraser Ridge. In 2009, Triumphant Caviar captured a heat for Beaver while Il Sogno Dream took a 2014 division in 1:53.2, still the stake record.

Asked if he’d heard anything about the stake’s being renamed Currier, Ives & Beaver, he deadpanned: “I don’t have any comment on that.”

Pinned to the pylons and 4-1/2 lengths back, El Toro Loco seemed destined for a minor award at best. But when Brian Zendt swung him well outside, he found another gear and scored in 1:55.2, a neck ahead of Last Glow, with early leader S I P third.

Tom Loughry, Jr. conditions the gelding for Brian Gillespie’s Lone Wolf Stable.

For Loughry, the path to the Currier & Ives winners’ circle was circuitous. For a number of years, he and his cousin, Robert Rougeaux III, have jointly operated the stable of their late grandfather, Harold Brocious, with Rougeaux listed as trainer. But Loughry, who handles most of the shipping, found it was easier to race out of state when the actual trainer was present.

Thus, he got his trainer’s license and had his first start on July 2, 2021, finishing fifth. Today, less than a year later, he’s a Grand Circuit stake-winning trainer.

“This is the biggest thrill with my name down as trainer,” Loughry said. “Still, we get the same thrill when we win at the fairs. Where does he go next? That’s up to Mr. Gillespie. We just try to stay out of is way and give him the best opportunities to win.”

EL TORO LOCO REPLAY

Merriman collected three wins on the 11-race card.

Live racing at The Meadows resumes Wednesday when the program features a pair of carryovers — $21,064.68 in the Jackpot Pick 5 (race 4), $598.27 in the final-race Super Hi-5. First post is 12:45 PM.

For complete race results, click here.

by Evan Pattak, for the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association