Gratz, PA --- At this second-to-last stop on the Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes circuit this summer this past Sunday and Monday, there were many fine and fast miles, more point total champions crowned, the leading North American 2-year-old in terms of wins upset by her archrival and a young driver earning a special place in the circuit’s history.
Chris Shaw, a 28-year-old horseman from Meadow Lands, Pa., has shown progression from year-to-year at the fairs while also slowly building a foothold on the pari-mutuel side, mostly at The Meadows.
This summer it has all come together for Shaw, who posted his 100th victory of the summer season with a victory behind the 3-year-old trotting colt Blazin’ Tsunami in a Fair Sire Stake Monday.
Not too many drivers have made the century mark on the Pennsylvania twicearounds -- Roger Hammer for sure -- and the confidence Shaw has built in himself and in other trainers has gotten him quality mounts throughout the warm months.
Of course, it also helps when your 2-year-old nephew Mason, son of Chris’ brother Jason (who is trainer for Team Shaw), owns three “other” 2-year-old who have collectively gone 47-39-8-0 over the summer.
Two of the trio are geldings, and they swept the 2-year-old pacing colt Fair Sire Stakes events: Marshmallow Pulse (Quik Pulse Mindale) in 2:00 and Nippy (Nuclear Breeze) in 2:01.4 for his ninth straight win. Nippy now has 13 visits to Victory Lane, more than any North American freshman male, and clinched a tie for leading his division in preliminary round points: the only way he could be caught is if he didn’t race Thursday at Bloomsburg, the last prelim stop, and Marshmallow Pulse would win and tie him.
Marshmallow Pulse has 12 wins, and is tied with three other horses at that figure, including, maybe not surprisingly, another horse with whom Chris Shaw won on Sunday -- Rustlercafe, a Rustler Hanover gelding who competes on the parallel Quaker State circuit. He won ’14 victory No. 12 -- and tenth in a row -- for owner/trainer Roger Hammer, with Chris having deputized for Hammer six times now.
The winningest 2-year-old in North America, the pacing filly Tropical Terror (Western Terror) tasted defeat for only the second time in 16 seasonal starts, though it was a very game outing, a three-quarter length defeat to her archrival Keystone I Wish, an Art Official filly owned by trainer/driver Todd Schadel in partnership with his wife Christine.
Tropical Terror parked a fired-up Keystone I Wish to a :29.4 opener before yielding for the pocket, and then could not catch her fast foe late at the end of a 2:00.4-:29.2 mile. Keystone I Wish now has won the two races Tropical Terror lost.
Besides Nippy, other divisional point winners were crowned and will be receiving the blanket in stable colors at the postseason fair banquet. Perhaps the most “unusual” blanket winner will be in the 2-year-old trotting filly ranks, where trainer Boots Dunn swept the two Sire Stakes contests at Gratz with Isabella Carina and Trustworthy Gal.
But assuring herself of the blanket was the horse who missed a half-length to the latter -- the Tom Ridge filly Peoplesayimnogood, a Lear Jetta filly owned, trainer, and usually driven by Roger Hammer. Peoplesayimnogood now has a seasonal standing of 15-2-10-2-1 at the fairs, remarkable consistency for a green trotting division -- and she does have speed, as evidenced by her divisional track record of 2:04.2 at Stoneboro.
In a division where four different misses have set track records, there should be a competitive championship, part of the $200,000 Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes championships at The Meadows on Saturday (Oct. 4).
The other horse to have clinched a blanket at Gratz was the Cantab Hall filly Cantabs Lightning, who is now 11-10-1-0 at the fairs, the last seven in succession, for owner/trainer/driver Wayne Long. Such was the respect her opponents have for Cantabs Lightning that she won the slowest of the sophomore trotting filly divisions: Todd Schadel guided the S