Wayne captures 1,000th career win

MEADVILLE PA – “Youthful veteran” horseman Wayne Long drove career winner number 1,000 during Friday’s (July 5) harness racing for two-year-olds at a two-day Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes meet at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in this northwest Pennsylvania city.

Long guided PHR (Heston Blue Chip – Escape Girl) to her first (and his 1000^th) victory for trainer/owner/former NFL player Oscar Johnson Jr.

Earlier, the 40-year-old had shown an equally-deft touch with the baby trotting misses, sweeping the two “A”” events with first-time purse-race winners while combining with trainer Joyce Lineweaver: the filly Britta Pillar (Father Patrick – Giant Clash) won for Pillar Stone Farms and the filly Phanto Treasure (Cantab Hall – Vanity Treasure) tallied for Long, Bill Kreutzer, and Denton Bennett.

Trainer/driver Aaron Johnston achieved a similar sweep in the freshman pacing filly “A” sectors with two-time fair winners: with the distaff Dont Touch My T (Heston Blue Chip – Tremor Hanover) for owner/wife Jennifer Johnston, and with the filly Its Written for Jennifer (Captain Crunch – Olivette Hanover), Chris Oluvic, and Midnight Shadow LLC. The latter filly’s 2:04 clocking tied for fastest freshman time with the gelding Alvin Hanover (Betting Line – A Pippin Hanover), driven and trained by Todd Schadel and owned by Todd and wife Christine.

Schadel came back during Saturday’s three-year-old action to lower the Meadville record for three-year-old trotting fillies from 2:02.3 (Monroe County, 2013) to 2:02 with the filly Loveyoubunches (Fordham Road), who earlier equaled the all-age track trot mark at Butler with a 2:00 mile. The Schadels co-own Loveyoubunches with Rick and Regina Beinhauer.

Sharing that Butler mark with Loveyoubunches is the gelding Internationalcraze (International Moni), also part of Team Schadel/Beinhauer, who at Meadville went in 2:01.2 for the fastest mile by any horse at the meet. Loveyoubunches’s 2:02 was equaled on the pace by the “B” PaFSS winner Dig Deep (Heston Blue Chip), the filly who has provided the 18-year-old provisional driver Jesse Barnard the enviable lifetime record of three drives, three wins, all with Dig Deep, whom he also trains and owns.

Among the “A” three-year-old pacers, 2023 Fair Champion Ante Up Hanover (Betting Line) won in 2:02.3, the gelding a part of the Team Schadel enterprise, and the filly Sonadora (Sweet Lou) became the only fair competitor with three “A” wins this year after succeeding for driver Aaron Johnston, trainer Nathan Bresnahan, and owner Matthew Miller.

Todd Schadel again led the meet’s drivers and trainers with seven wins in both columns. Next in line at Meadville among drivers were Aaron Johnston (5) and Wayne Long (4); tied for second with three conditioning victories were Aaron Johnston and Joyce Lineweaver.

Next stop on the Pennsylvania Fair Circuit is the Lycoming County Fair in Hughesville PA, with racing on Wednesday and Thursday at 4 p.m.

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

From the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association, Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association, and Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association partnership