Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Hambletonian Eliminations Contested

    Mr Pine Chip wins a Hambo Elim in 1:53.4

Trainer Trond Smedshammer qualified all three of his colts, including Mr Pine Chip and Here Comes Herbie, who each captured a $100,000 elimination division on Saturday afternoon, and will be joined by Blue Mac Lad in the $1.5 million Hambletonian on August 5 at the Meadowlands.

Mr Pine Chip, a perfect six-for-six this year, split horses in the final 70 yards and drew off to a three-quarter-length victory in 1:53.4 in the second race, the first of the two elimination divisions for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings.

Glidemaster, behind whom Mr Pine Chip had drafted, held on for second and the Smedshammer-trained Blue Mac Lad [$2.10] got up for third, a length behind.

Global Glide (fourth) and Algiers Hall [fifth] also advance to the final from elimination one.

“He’s a real nice colt and he shows it by his card, all wins this year,” said winning driver Brian Sears. “He knows how to get it done. He was very comfortable. I really liked the draw. When I saw it come out, I thought I might get that trip and everything worked out. Everything looks real good right now for the final.”

Mr Pine Chip, a son of SJ’s Caviar – Miss Pine Chip, followed Glidemaster’s outside tier on the backstretch and sprinted to his 11th win in 19 career starts. He races for Joe Sbrocco of Brecksville, Ohio and Southwind Farm of Pennington, New Jersey, and has banked $571,905 lifetime.

“They raced nice and easy trips, second and third over following Glidemaster, the horse to beat,” said Trond Smedshammer, who trains both Mr Pine Chip and Blue Mac Lad. “I was very happy. Mr Pine Chip is a horse that doesn’t know where the wire is; he just keeps coming at the end of the mile and horses like that will just do a lot of good. Blue Mac Lad showed he had a lot of talent last year, and he’s a super horse.”

Mr Pine Chip already captured the $375,000 Stanley Dancer Memorial Final on July 15 at the Meadowlands.

In the second division, the fifth race, Here Comes Herbie, driven by Smedshammer, held off the late charge of 4-5 Chocolatier for a length and a quarter victory in a career best of 1:52 flat. Berto Primo was third by five and a half lengths.

Capetown Hall [fourth] and Race Fan [fifth] advance to the final.

Here Comes Herbie set the pace and controlled the fractions to post his third win with one third in five starts this year. The son of Credit Winner races for the Cutting Edge Stable of Port Perry, Ontario and has earnings of $180,215.

“I didn’t really like the way the race was on paper with me taking back,” said Smedshammer. “I figured I was going to end up first up with Chocolatier from the five-hole so I took a chance and tried to get everybody in the hole. The horse felt very good. I was thinking about letting RC Royalty go, but he hasn’t been that strong lately and I didn’t want to get stuck in behind. And then I saw Chocolatier get in a little traffic trouble behind him on the last turn so I figured I’d get a little jump on him.”

Here Come Herbie can be a challenge to drive.

“Sometimes he’s good; scoring down, he saw something in the first turn and just leaped over,” noted Smedshammer. “He’s a horse you gotta keep an eye on, but he was better managed today than he has been. He was going good until the last sixteenth, and he was slowing down. I knew Chocolatier was coming so I just wanted to make sure he kept up a little bit. They’re not going to do much [training this week]. This horse, especially, is definitely better with less work. He shows that he always races better when he has a week or two off. So, he’s not going to do much training.”

$100,000 Hambletonian First Elimination: Race Two
The Meadowlands Saturday, July 29, 2006
PP Horse                 Driver
3 Mr Pine Chip            Brian Sears
2 Glidemaster            John Campbell
5 Blue Mac Lad           G Brennan
1 Global Glide            Ron Pierce
6 Algiers Hall              John Stark Jr.
:28.3      :57      1:25.4      1:53.4

$100,000 Hambletonian Second Elimination: Race Five
The Meadowlands Saturday, July 29, 2006
PP Horse                          Driver
1 Here Comes Herbie        T Smdshmr
5 Chocolatier                     DR Ackerman
2 Berto Primo                     Ron Pierce
6 Capetown Hall                 David Miller
3 Race Fan                        Steve Smith
:27.1      :55      1:23.3      1:52