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.
Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino played host to a stakes filled card on Friday, May 21 and with it officially kicked off the 2021 Indiana Sires Stakes season.
The Hoosier State’s top sophomore trotters and pacers were on display and served notice that the 2021 stakes season would deliver plenty of excitement. The 2021 Indiana Sires Stakes program will feature eight legs throughout the season and culminate with the $250,000 Super Finals on October 15.
It was a big night on the track for trainer Erv Miller who scored three stakes victories on the evening’s 13-race card. The most notable score of the evening for Team Miller was produced by the rookie three-year-old trotting colt Mallard Hanover who turned in a 1:52.4 effort to romp in the opening division of the Indiana Sires Stakes for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings.