Diabolic Hill a “Naughty” winner in Kindergarten Series

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – The Kindergarten Series for 2-year-olds kicked off Friday night at The Meadowlands with seven $25,000, leg one harness racing dashes for horses of each sex and gait, and one winner that stood out was a still-learning Diabolic Hill (Muscle Hill), who scored in the first of three colt and gelding trots in the fifth race.

“With a helmet to follow, he was a little bit better,” said winning driver Andy McCarthy. “He’s a naughty boy. He tried to put it over on me. You have to get him straight. He can go pretty fast. He’s bumpy on the turn, he tries to run off the track a little bit, but he’s just a naughty kid.”

The son of Muscle Hill-Crysti Dream raced in the four-hole to the half, picked up a live tow from Spycatcher to three-quarters and around the far turn, looked a tad bumpy while straightening away for the stretch drive before taking off inside the eighth pole to win by 1½ lengths over Mr Penner, who failed in his bid to go wire-to-wire.

Minoan was third.

DIABOLIC HILL REPLAY

Diabolic Hill returned $3.60 to win as the 4-5 favorite after completing the mile in 1:56.2.

“He definitely has some growing up to do but continues to show great potential and speed,” said winning trainer Annie Stoebe.

“He’ll learn, he’ll get better,” said McCarthy. “We’ll keep working on him.”

IN FRONT: The other six divisional Kindergarten Series winners were:

• Race 3 – Filly Pace: Ladysassin (Perfect Sting-Dream Chaser), Dexter Dunn driving, trained by Linda Toscano, time for the mile was 1:53.2, paid $18.60 as the 8-1 fourth choice
• Race 7 – Colt and Gelding Trot: Southwind Alamo (Tactical Landing-Amber Ella), Tim Tetrick, Ron Coyne Jr., 1:55.1, $6.80 as the 2-1 second choice
• Race 9 – Colt and Gelding Trot: Who’s Eyes Blues (Chapter Seven-Behindblueyes), Yannick Gingras, Ron Burke, 1:56.2, $6.20 as the 2-1 second choice
• Race 11 – Colt and Gelding Pace: Dax Seelster (Bulldog Hanover-Deb), Gingras, Burke, 1:55, $4.20 as the even-money favorite
• Race 12 – Filly Trot: Abbey Blue Chip (Tactical Landing-Lima Novelty), Tetrick, Coyne Jr., 1:56.2, $8 as the 3-1 third choice
• Race 13 – Filly Trot: Waldon Fashion (Walner-Broadway Donna), Todd McCarthy, Jim Campbell, 1:55.4, $4.40 as the 6-5 favorite

A LITTLE MORE: Followers of Big M TV’s Jessica Otten had smiles on their faces – and green in their pockets – at the end of the night. Otten tabbed nine winners on the card, including her best bet Dax Hanover ($4.20) and value play Blue Point ($12.60), and then, for good measure, had the Late Pick-4 twice, giving her faithful a return of $290.60. … Andy McCarthy, Todd McCarthy, Tetrick and Gingras tied atop the driver leaderboard with two wins each, while Coyne and Burke led the trainers as each took a pair of walks down victory lane. … All-source handle on the 15-race program totaled $2,465,754. … Racing resumes Saturday at 7 p.m., a pair of $230,000 Stan Bergstein Graduate Series finals are the featured events.

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

by Dave Little, for The Meadowlands