Plainridge kicks-off Grand Circuit this week

Harness Racing This Week: Dexter Cup and Lady Suffolk, Freehold Raceway, Freehold, N.J.; Paul Revere Pace, Plainridge Park, Plainville, Mass.; and Miss Versatility Series opening leg, The Meadowlands, East Rutherford, N.J.

Schedule of events: Grand Circuit action begins Thursday (May 4) at Plainridge Park with two $50,000 divisions in the Paul Revere Pace for 3-year-old males.

Freehold Raceway will host Grand Circuit stakes on Saturday (May 6) with the $137,775 Dexter Cup for 3-year-old male trotters and two divisions in the $56,450 Lady Suffolk for 3-year-old filly trotters.

Also on Saturday, The Meadowlands has a $40,000 first leg division in the Miss Versatility Series for open trotting mares.

Complete entries for the races can be found by clicking on this link.

Last Time: The 47-1 shot Hellabalou (Sweet Lou) pulled off the big upset in the $511,000 MGM Borgata Pacing Series final on Monday night (April 24) at MGM Yonkers Raceway, rallying up the inside in the lane after yielding to sit in the pocket early. The final time for the Joe Bongiorno-driven, Ron Burke-trained horse was 1:50.3.

The 2021 Adios winner, Hellabalou left out quickly from post five and crossed over to the pylons early on the first turn. Fellow Burke trainee and former MGM Borgata Pacing Series champion This Is The Plan (Yannick Gingras) pressed on two-wide, though, and took the top spot away from Hellabalou before the :27.1 quarter went on the board.

Coming off the second turn, 8-5 favorite Covered Bridge (Tyler Buter) would be flushed first-up out of the third position by a moving Idealsomemagic A (George Brennan), and Covered Bridge advanced to within a length of This Is The Plan at the :55.2 half. Covered Bridge continued to chip away at This Is The Plan’s margin around the third bend and to the 1:22.2 three-quarters, and the battle continued past that marker as well.

In the upper part of the stretch This Is The Plan continued to show an advantage over Covered Bridge and was responding to Gingras’ encouragement, but he also came off the pylons, enabling Hellabalou to find a seam to blast through.

Hellabalou had plenty of pace once the space became available, and he went by on his way to a one length victory over a closing Leonidas A (Austin Siegelman). Covered Bridge ended up third, followed by This Is The Plan, and a mired-in-traffic Lochinvar Art A (Lauren Tritton).

Owned by Burke Racing Stable, Eric Good, Weaver Bruscemi and Larry Karr, Hellabalou is a 5-year-old stallion. He has now compiled a record of 20-5-5 from 55 starts, and he boosted his earnings to $839,654.

Amazing Dream N (Bettor’s Delight) and driver Yannick Gingras drew the pole for Monday’s (April 24) $328,200 Blue Chip Matchmaker Series final at MGM Yonkers Raceway and used that position to advantage, setting all the fractions and drawing clear in the homestretch to score an impressive victory in a 1:53.1 mile.

Sent off as the 5-2 second choice, Amazing Dream N held off a strong closing Lit De Rose, with favored Dougs Babe A settling for third.

It was the fourth win in five starts this year for Amazing Dream N, who is trained by Linda Toscano for owners Enviro Stables, Richard Gutnick, Tom Pontone and Joseph Lozito Jr. The 7-year-old mare now has 30 lifetime wins and earnings of $1,485,034.

Complete recaps of all the races are available at the Grand Circuit website. For a list of 2023 race winners on the Grand Circuit, click here.

Grand Circuit Standings: In 2023, the Grand Circuit leaders in three categories (driver, trainer and owner) will once again be tracked on a points system (20-10-5 for the top three finishers in divisions/finals and 10-5-2 for the top three finishers in eliminations/legs). Winbak Farms is the sponsor for the 2023 Grand Circuit awards.

Here are the leaders (through the races on 4-24-23):

Drivers: 1. Yannick Gingras – 107; 2. Jordan Stratton – 92; 3. Matt Kakaley – 90; 4. Dexter Dunn – 55; 5. Jason Bartlett – 46.

Trainers: 1t. Jeff Gillis – 82; 1t. Ron Burke – 82; 3. Linda Toscano – 70; 4t. Travis Alexander – 54; 4t. Jared Bako – 54.

Owners: 1. Mark Ford – 78; 2. Robert Di Nozzi – 39; 3. 1362313 Ontario Ltd. – 37; 4. Jesmeral Stable – 32; 5. Guy Corbeil – 29.

Looking ahead: Grand Circuit action will take place at The Meadowlands on May 20 with the Arthur Cutler Memorial for older trotters.

by Paul Ramlow, for the Grand Circuit