Top Flight Champion, driven by Eddie Dennis, has won five straight races
HARRINGTON – A gorgeous summer evening and Delaware’s top standardbreds filled the backdrop on the annual Delaware State Fair program at Harrington Raceway Thursday, July 23, as 12 races were contested on the richest program of the year for local harness racing.
More than $650,000 in total purses were distributed to many of The First State’s top owned and/or bred horses as a quartet of $110,000 Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund (DSBF) finals for 3-year-olds were among the headliners for the program.
The first DSBF final was for filly trotters as Don and David Wiest’s Tuis Star ($2.10, Corey Callahan) atoned for a miscue in her second elimination with a 1:59.4 triumph in a tight photo over Emerys Angel and Crazy Amy. The EL Platinum filly notched her seventh career win for trainer and co-owner David Wiest.
Erv Miller, Joellen Frawley and James Knowlton’s C Millertimeagain ($3.60, Corey Callahan) was a 1:52.3 winner in the pacing colt and gelding final over Watch Em Win and Roman Raider. The Molly Gara-trainee recorded his fifth win in six starts this year. C Millertimeagain was a wire-to-wire winner.
Anthony Carson’s Lovers Cay ($4.80, Brandon Givens) completed a sweep of the filly pacing division, after winning both her eliminations she was a front-end winner over Mom’s Vision and Sucha Sporty Girl. Trainer Kristyann Rash assumed training duties of the Sports Column filly as a sophomore, and is now on a three-race win streak. Givens had a driving double.
E&K Stable and Robert Nibblett’s Top Flight Champion ($2.10, Eddie Dennis) was one of the most impressive winners on the card, with an 8-length romp over Thiskissformaryell and Money Manager. Top Flight Champion, a son of Top Flight Angel, has won eight of 11 starts as a 3-year-old for co-owner/trainer/driver Dennis and has prevailed by at least 4 lengths in each triumph during his current five-race win streak.
A moment of silence was held before the first race honoring longtime Harrington Raceway GM/Chief Operating Officer Jim Boese, who passed away in late June, with the race named in his honor. Nearly all of the races celebrated the memory of dignitaries, community stalwarts, and/or racing participants.