CLEARFIELD PA – One horse set a divisional track record, and several others burnished their credentials during the only four-day stop on the Pennsylvania fair circuit, the Clearfield County Fair , slightly west of the center of the sprawling state.
The altered line in the local record book took place during the last race of the meet, as the Artspeak colt Terry A Hanover, a 2020 Pennsylvania Fair Championship winner, paced in 1:58.1 to reduce his division’s record, set by Star Of Terror in 2017, by four-fifths of a second. Owned by Christine Schadel and Caitlin Solt, Terry A Hanover is trained and was driven by Todd Schadel, whose name you’ll read several more times in this story. (We’d love to “share the ink,” but the barn is just making all the headlines now.)
On the trotting side, the track’s all-age mark of 2:01.2, set by Stickler Hanover last year, was threatened by a pair of 2:02 winners: the Bar Hopping colt Top Me Off, the fastest fair trotter this year at 1:58.3, a 2020 Fair champion, and now a four-time winner on the cotton candy circuit who won for Christine Schadel and her husband along with Rick and Regina Beinhauer, and the Donato Hanover colt By A Hoff Hanover, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Schadel along with Timothy Hayes and Dr. Megan Moschgat. No extra points for guessing who these sophomores’ trainer and driver is.
One two-year-old who had a chance to further brighten her time in the spotlight was the Betting Line pacing filly Bettor Strait N Up, who came to Clearfield with four fair wins and had a chance to notch five before anyone else had gotten four in the “A” ranks. But she had to settle for second behind Gottaluvit Hanover; as it is, she is now joined by Tiamogonedancen and Top Me Off as four-time “A” fair winners.
The Buster DiSalvo trophy is given annually to the meet’s leading driver. The honor went to Todd Schadel, who guided ten winners to Victory Lane.
The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit now divides into racing at two sites, as conflicts are sometimes unavoidable given the fairs’ overall schedules. There will be racing at the Greene County Fair at Waynesburg PA this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, along with Wednesday and Thursday racing at the Wayne County Fair at Honesdale PA – 347 miles apart.