Stillwell takes AHDC Pace at Freehold

FREEHOLD, N.J.— Yielding for a pocket trip, harness racing amateur driver Jacob Stillwell fired in the lane with Blue Ocean (Bring On The Beach) to snag a 1:58 victory in the $9,000 American Harness Drivers Club (AHDC) Pace at Freehold Raceway on Friday afternoon (March 24).

Stillwell protected position from the pylon post and led to a :29 first quarter as Magazine Theme (driven by Tony Verruso), reined back from a leave attempt early, barreled towards the top and cleared control into the second turn. Magazine Theme then strode through a :58.1 half and 1:28 three-quarters as challenging tier began mounting behind Momentsthatmatter (Joe Lee) pulling first over from third.

Magazine Theme plugged along through the final turn while Momentsthatmatter stalled to the outside. He then spun for home maintaining the lead until Blue Ocean found clearance to the outside and vaulted past to a 1-1/4-length victory. Prince Aston (John Calabrese) closed down the center of the track for third with Momentsthatmatter holding fourth.

Paul Fusco trains Blue Ocean, a four-year-old gelding for owner J M F Racing LLC. Off the fourth choice in the betting, Blue Ocean paid $15.20 to win.

BLUE OCEAN REPLAY

AHDC action returns to Freehold Raceway on Saturday afternoon (March 25) with two $9,000 trotting divisions carded as Race 4 and Race 7 on the 12-race card. First-race post time at Freehold Raceway is 12:30 p.m. (EDT).

For complete race results, click here.

by Ray Cotolo, for the AHDC