Race secretary Rob Pennington hit a home run with his holiday-themed winter late closing series, resulting in the presentation of over a dozen legs of four individual series being contested over the upcoming three-day (Dec. 8 – 10) weekend at First Tracks Cumberland.
A pair of $14,000-plus divisions of the Maine Sire Stakes for two-year-old colt and gelding pacers closed out the 169th week of harness racing at historic Topsham Fair. The duo of early, non-wagering races kicked off the final, blockbuster card Saturday (Aug. 12), which was met with praise and applause for the second-year director of racing Michelle Hardin.
The $10,000 for 10,000 Bruce Ranger Open Pace turned out to be a battle of the Pine Tree State’s pacing stars as The Bird Dance N defeated some of the area’s swiftest sidesteppers on Friday (May 26) at Cumberland.
Homegrown reinsman Nick Graffam started Saturday’s (May 20) Cumberland program needing just one victory to push him over the edge to the 1,000-win threshold. That moment finally arrived in the eighth race, where a horse named Four Finger Floyd put the Maine-native into the four-figure win category.