STAKES ACTION APLENTY ON ADIOS DAY AT THE MEADOWS
By Evan Pattak For The Meadows Standardbred Owners Association
WASHINGTON, PA, July 31, 2021 — Saturday’s Adios Day card at The Meadows was rich with supporting stakes, including a pair of Arden Downs Grand Circuit events for freshmen and Pennsylvania Sires Stake action. Here are the highlights.
$49,270 Arden Downs — 2-Year-Old Filly Pacers
Trainer Jim King Jr., no stranger to classy pacing distaffs such as Shartin N and Lyons Sentinel, won both divisions of this stake known as the Mary Lib Miller.
Lyons Serenity set a stakes record of 1:52.2 in taking her division of the stakes as the odds-on favorite. Tim Tetrick tucked third to the :28 quarter, then brushed his filly to the top nearing the :57.1 half. The race became a sprint from that point, and nobody had more sprint than the victorious daughter of Sweet Lou–Southwind Serenity as she passed the three-quarters in 1:24.2 and then came home 2-3/4 lengths ahead of pocket-sitting Allnight Micki while knocking a tick off of Malinka’s stake record set 10 years ago.
“She’s fast, but mentally, I don’t think she’s ready for tougher yet,” Tetrick said. “She’s a little on the hot side. If she gets her own way, she looks good. If she didn’t get her own way, I don’t know if she would look so good. She has some growing up to do.”
Lyons Serenity now has two firsts and one second in three lifetime starts for Threelyonsracing.
As easily as Lyons Serenity won her division, the victory of Captain Cowgirl was just as difficult. With Tetrick owning another King trainee in this race, Andrew McCarthy got the catch drive, and he tucked his filly in third as favored Hit Me Up, the stablemate of Water Teen Sports who had won two straight since changing barns, made the top and put up fractions of :28.2, :57.1, and 1:25.2, with McCarthy moving the daughter of Captaintreacherous -Rideintothesunset to the outside by the last-named station.
Captain Cowgirl (the $6.60 second choice) and Hit Me Up quickly made the stretch battle a two-horse affair, and the two fillies raced wheel-to-wheel much of the drive. Captain Cowgirl proved a nose better in the photo, then had to survive an inquiry into the tight stretch duel before getting the official decision, keeping her record unblemished after three starts for owners Jo Ann Looney-King and Kenneth Fried.
$42,070 Arden Downs — 2-Year-Old Colt & Gelding Pacers
On a day that The Meadows held a “Dick Stillings Appreciation Pace” for the Hall of Fame horseman, it seemed right to have the Arden Downs stake for next year’s Adios possibles, the 2-year-old pacing colts, renamed the Roy D. Davis Pace after the late veteran owner, who achieved his Hall of Fame Immortal status by campaigning a host of champion horses surnamed “Spur” with Stillings as trainer and frequent driver.
The first division of the Roy Davis saw JM’s Final Treasure installed as the heavy favorite, and Indeed, when he made his move towards the three-quarters after his Ron Burke stablemate Birthday had cut fractions of :27.4, :56.3 and 1:24, he looked like he had a big shot. But track bias was working against him — no horse who had been on the outside entering the final turn had won to that point -— and the streak continued, with Birthday able to hold off JM’s Final Treasure by a head in 1:52. One horse did get by Birthday, pocket sitter All The Chips to the leader’s inside, but just as he grabbed a small margin past mid-stretch, he got rough gaited and lost all momentum, allowing the two Burke horses to beat him to the line.
The victory thus went to the Sweet Lou-Breakheart Pass colt Birthday, who was driven by Ron Wrenn Jr. for trainer Burke and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. Birthday lowered his mark by over three seconds with the quick triumph.
“No one really left out of there, and I was able to get decent fractions,” Wrenn said. “He paced home really strong. I thought someone would quarter-move on me, but when no one did, I was able to get a good breather.”
Boardwalk Bet was the favorite in the second stake division, but leaving from the outside post against several determined rivals forced him to take an early tuck, and his uncovered bid suffered the same fate as did all the other outside challengers of the day. (To be fair, he did suffer broken equipment.) Victorious was another son of Sweet Lou (out of Macharoundtheclock), the Tim Twaddle trainee Fourever Boy, who broke his maiden in memorable fashion with a 1:53.2 triumph. All-time leading Meadows (and world) driver Dave Palone got this colt to the front in the :28 first quarter, got a big breather to a :57.2 half, then took off to a 1:24.3 three-quarters and proved uncatchable in winning by 1-1/2 lengths over Good Deal (another Burke trainee). Twaddle co-owns the freshman with the good timing with Micki Rae Stables LLC.
