Longtime Pennsylvania horsemen Don and Dave Wiest and Ed Kimmel developed a champion two-year-old trotter last season in the filly Love Muffin, who sold to Team Orange Crush over the winter after becoming the Pennsylvania Stallion Series championship. Now it looks like the longtime partners may be ready for another good season with baby trotters, as they took events for both sexes as The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono hosted the two-year-olds for the first time on Wednesday morning (June 2).
First was the filly Gumdrop Hanover, who came a last half in :58.1 to win her bow in 2:01.4 for Kimmel and co-owner-trainer-driver David Wiest. The baby is a daughter of Bar Hopping out of Grits N Seven, a half-sister to $1.6M-winning champion Royalty For Life.
A 23-1 wagering afterthought, You Ato Dream fired through the sloppy Lightning Lane to pull off the shocker in Saturday’s (May 29) Pennsylvania Sires Stake at The Meadows and snap the eight-race winning streak of Anoka Hanover. Love Muffin captured the other division of the $143,132 event for three-year-old trotting fillies known as the Meadow Bright.
You Ato Dream banked more than $217,000 at two, but suffered occasional gait problems. In the Meadow Bright, she rated beautifully in the pocket behind Bella Bellini and poured through late to down the tempo-setter by a half length in a career-fastest 1:53. Lady Chaos completed the ticket.
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Manchego, a returning Dan Patch Award winner who won the Arthur J. Cutler Memorial in her 2021 debut, is the No. 1-ranked horse in this season’s first Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll. The six-year-old female trotter received 20 of 35 first-place votes.
Six-year-old male pacer This Is The Plan, the MGM Borgata Series champion and the sport’s leading money-winner, was second in the rankings. He was followed by four-year-old male trotter Its Academic, three-year-old male pacer Abuckabett Hanover, and six-year-old female pacer Machnhope in rounding out the top five.
Its Academic counts the Charlie Hill Memorial among his wins while Machnhope was the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series champion. Abuckabett Hanover handed Perfect Sting his first career loss in a division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes earlier this month.
Trotting sophomores will be in the spotlight this weekend at the eastern Pennsylvania tracks, with the fillies in PA Sire Stakes and Stallion Series action at Harrah’s Philly on Friday (May 21), and the colts and geldings at Pocono Saturday (May 22) for Pennsylvania All-Stars events.
This is the first coming-together for the state-sired fillies, and most of last year’s top-rated misses will be on hand along with one noted newcomer: Bella Bellini. Bella Bellini is in probably the toughest of the three Sires Stakes divisions, Race 8, but she’s ready for her test as she comes in off of three victories in 1:54 or better for driver Dexter Dunn and trainer Nifty Norman. There is no shortage of talented challengers, including Love Muffin, coming off a 1:53 qualifier at The Meadowlands; Flawless Country, last year’s Sire Stakes champion; and Lady Chaos, the Breeders Crown champion for this group in 2020.