Atlanta soars, Jujubee sets track record

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Atlanta advanced first-over after slow early fractions in Saturday’s (Aug. 7) $187,400 Dr. John Steele Memorial for free-for-all harness racing trotting mares at The Meadowlands, but she pushed clear in early stretch and produced a :26.1 final quarter to win in 1:50.4.

The daughter of Chapter Seven was just inside of rival When Dovescry on the first turn, and driver Yannick Gingras said, “I thought about going up with David’s mare (When Dovescry), but then I decided that, even if the fractions weren’t fast, she’s such a sprinter (that) she would be able to go by these horses.”

Gingras proved an astute handicapper as Atlanta surmounted slow splits of :27, :56.2 and 1:24.3, and as close as arch rival Manchego’s victory was earlier in the card, Atlanta’s margin of victory was 3-3/4 lengths.

Atlanta, the all-age track trot record holder at The Meadowlands at 1:49.1, has now earned $2,857,999 in her storied career, has won exactly half of her lifetime starts – 28 out of 56 – and she has been second in exactly half of her defeats. Ron Burke trains Atlanta for the partnership of Crawford Farms Racing, Brad Grant and Howard Taylor.

ATLANTA REPLAY

The Dr. John Steele Memorial, formerly named the Fresh Yankee, is dedicated to the memory of the “Grand Circuit Veterinarian to the Stars,” working with the sport’s leading stables and horses, acclaimed as an expert diagnostician and an innovator with therapeutics. Dr. Steele was a particular fan of trotters and rarely missed a Hambletonian Day.

Jujubee roared out the pocket and overtook a breaking Dancinginthdark M in the final strides of Saturday’s $50,000 division of the Muscle Hill Trot, setting a 1:49.4 track record for 3-year-old trotting colts in doing so.

Driver Tony Hall got Jujubee, who won for the 10th time this year, right to the lead, and the pair then yielded near the :27.1 quarter to Dancinginthedark M, who broke stride in his Hambletonian elimination last week.

Dancinginthdark M set middle splits of :55.2 and 1:23 and looked to be going well coming to the stretch, but Hall eased Jujubee out of the hole and gained slowly but surely. Dancinginthedark M finally lost gait nearing the finish line, and Jujubee rewrote the record of one Åke Svanstedt trainee, the 1:50 divisional mark of Six Pack, and tied another, the 1:49.4 three-year-old track record of filly Plunge Blue Chip. Ethan T Hanover finished third.

“It was my dream trip,” said Hall. “Very rarely does it wind up that way, but it did today. I couldn’t have mapped it out any better.”

JUJUBEE REPLAY

Jujubee, a son of Creatine, is owned by Jon Erdner and is trained by Greg Wright Jr.

“He’s trotted some good miles over some bad tracks, weather-wise,” Hall continued. “We always thought if he got on a mile track that he’d be able to stretch out, and he proved to us that the big track was a great thing for him.”

For full race results, click here.

by Jerry Connors, for the Hambletonian Society