HONESDALE PA – The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit made its last regular-season stop for a “Two-Day Sire Stakes Event” at the Wayne County Fairgrounds in this northeast Pennsylvania town on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the freshmen set the tone for their older stablemates when two track records were rewritten on Tuesday.
The local mark for filly freshman trotters was lowered by over two seconds when the Sebastian K S – Ruffleshaveridges miss R Speed Of Light won her sixth straight race, her Honesdale clocking of 2:04.4 battering the previous 2:07 mark set by AJ Peyton Rose in 2009 and equaled by Touch of Dough two years ago. Trainer/driver Todd Schadel was in his usual spot behind the talented baby, and he is co-owner with his wife Christine and Rick and Regina Beinhauer.
All four of the fair circuit’s freshman season’s leaders won on the Tuesday card; in addition to R Speed Of Light and Seth Hanover, trotting gelding Top Me Off and pacing filly Catie Faye Hanover took trips to Victory Lane.
Wednesday’s conditions did not turn out to be so optimal for speed production, but there was a 2:00 victory turned in by the Well Said gelding Nome Hanover, who is trained and was driven by Todd Schadel, also co-owner with Timothy Hayes and Dr. Megan Moscheat.
Roger Hammer and Todd Schadel tied with Todd’s brother Tony as leading sulkysitters at the meet with three triumphs; Roger and Todd, the partners on the storied trotter Vivid Photo, both harnessed four winners in the short meet to tie for that crown.
The two track records brought the final count for the year to sixteen, of which six were all-age track records for their gait, with Nome Hanover’s 2:00 triumph raising the count in that category to 48 for the year.
The leading pointwinners in each of the eight divisions now prepare for their $25,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Championships, to be held at The Meadows on Monday afternoon, October 12.
(And only part of one card was lost to weather all season long.)