Staff
Last year, just before the world shut down, I was in Portugal for one of the best events I’ve ever seen. It was the Perfect Chapter, a roving one-day event that focused solely on the tube ride. I was there for a little over a week, and since the event itself was a single day, I spent a lot of time simply riding a bicycle around the wonderful little town of Cascais.
On one particularly memorable day, I hopped in a van with Anthony Walsh, Cory Lopez, and Balaram Stack. Since the Perfect Chapter runs on the best day of the Portuguese winter, the waves were next-level good it was a day or two after it ran, and the swell was still pulsing.
Black Mamba AS added the $25,000 championship leg of the Howard Beissinger Memorial Medley trot series at 1-1/4 miles to her impressive resume on Friday, trotting gate to finish line in front in 2:25.2 in an effort that would have made Kobe Bryant proud.
“I knew she’d have a big shot,” exclaimed driver Tyler Smith. “Anette (Lorentzon, the trainer) keeps all her horses fit and sharp and the added quarter mile didn’t bother her or me a bit.” A six-year-old daughter of Lionhunter, Black Mamba AS recorded her 16th lifetime victory and boosted her career bounty to $342,912 with the score. She has finished on the board in 42 of her 77 trips behind the starting gate.
The field for the $25,000 championship of the Howard Beissinger Memorial Medley Trot is set, and it promises to be quite a contentious affair at the added distance of 1-1/4 miles.
Beissinger, a Hall Of Fame trainer-driver, won three Hambletonians and maintained his base of operations in Hamilton, Ohio less than ten miles from Miami Valley Raceway throughout his illustrious career.
Shake It Mary (Dan Noble) extended her win streak to four at Miami Valley with a 1:57 score in the first of two divisions on Friday (Feb 12) at one mile. The classy five-year-old daughter of Dontyouforgetit, trained by Sherif Cunmulaj for the Rushcreek Stables, surpassed the $150,000 earnings plateau with her 20th career triumph. She beat favoured Compelling (LeWayne Miller) and Lets Go Bucks (Jeremy Smith) by about a length. Majestic Brayden also advanced from this split to the final with a pair of fifth place finishes in preliminary legs.
The Friday night feature at Miami Valley was the $22,500 Mares Open Pace, won by Pace Baby Pace and driver Chris Page for the second straight week, but the most anticipated races were a pair of divisions going 5/8ths of a mile dashes in the first leg of the Howard Beissinger Memorial Medley. The second leg of the annual Beissinger Memorial will go a standard mile, then the third and final $25,000 championship leg will go 1-1/4 miles on Friday, Feb. 22. Nominated horses could not have raced for a purse over $15,000 in their last three overnight starts.
Compelling (LeWayne Miller) won the most exciting split, racing in the back half of the pack throughout most of the one lap contest before charging from sixth to first in the stretch drive. The Next Triumph (Trace Tetrick) went nose-to-nose with Compelling most of the stretch, but settled for second in the end. Pink Tulip (Jason Brewer) got up to garner the show dough.