By Mike Paradise
The fastest winning mile among the 17 sophomore pacers in Saturday’s two $15,000 divisions of the Robert Carey Memorial stake series for 3-year-old ICF male pacers isn’t likely to be a betting favorite in his split.
BS Tyriffic hasn’t gone off as the favorite in any start this year in a state-bred division race nevertheless he’s been right there in just about every outing against them and with some better racing luck he could have added to his season total of two wins.
“His trips this year haven’t worked out in the big races,” said his driver Kyle Wilfong. “It did work out in the Cardinal elimination two weeks ago. He got a beautiful two-hole trip.
“It seems in the stake finals he draws badly, he has to race first over or he gets blocked. He seems to be a bad-luck horse in the finals.”

BS Tyriffic hasn’t missed a check in an ICF race this year and as a 2-year-old he won a Balmoral Hanover, a Springfield Review and his Orange and Blue elimination. The pacer’s worse finish was third in the O&B Blue final. Poor racing luck was the reason.
“I was sitting behind the favorite on Super Night but he tired in the lane and I got stuck behind him. If my horse gets out, we would have won that big race.”
BS Tyriffic’s Cardinal elimination win was a quick 1:52 flat mile, faster than any horse in either of the Carey divisions have paced thus far.
“I’m not surprised,” continued Kyle. “He’s the fastest ICF 3-year-old I’ve been behind this year and I’ve driven some of the others. From a sixteenth to an eighth of a mile I don’t think there’s a horse in his division that can out-sprint him.
“BS Tyriffic may not always be the best horse in a race but he always gives you a big effort. He’s very handy. He can leave, he sits good. He does everything right. He just needs some better racing luck in these stakes.”
Unsurprisingly the Bob Sanders trained 3-year-old drew into the much tougher second division of the Carey Saturday where he’ll have to take down last year’s IF 2-year-old champion Dan D Dune (pp 10, Casey Leonard), Carey first leg winner Royale Rose (pp Matt Krueger), Cardinal champion Goindude (pp 6, Travis Seekman) and ITQ YQR (pp 4, Trenton Watson), also a first round Carey victor.
Caffeine Kid (pp 1, Dale Hiteman) another earlier Carey leg winner, Impressive Art (pp 3, Jared Finn). Fox Valley Eli (pp 7, Kyle Husted) and Red Dog Ryan (Ridge Warren) complete the seventh race field.
The Bob Rittof Stable’s Holdonwe’rerolling, another first leg Carey champion, is the fifth race first Carey division favorite (3-2 in my line); Todd Warren will guide him away from the seven-slot in the right horse field.
Posts one through six will be manned by JB’s Hero (Bobby Smolin), Bowedfortyova (Kyle Husted), He Gone Jack (Dale Hiteman) Chlo’s Richess Pat Curtin) and Whatdoesthefoxsay (Jerome Daniels).. Dr Drake Ramoray (Jim Pantaleano) who spent the month of July in Pennsylvania has the outside 8-post.
Much the Best: Friday night’s two $15,000 third leg divisions of the Plum Peach stakes for ICF3-year-old fillies went as expected with first Whiskersonkittens and then Char N Marg, a couple of overwhelming favorites, dominating their respective splits
Whiskersonkittens was pushed going into the first turn by Bucklegirl Bobette before her driver Kyle Wilfong took the pocket behind the overwhelming 1 to 9 favorite. Todd Warren grabbed a hold of Whiskeronkittens and with no challengers she coasted to a 59.2 half.
In fact the first filly to tip out and go after the leader was the pocket horse Bucklegirl Bobette in the final turn but when she came alongside Whiskersokittens looked her in the eye and then went bye-bye, pulling away with a 27 flat quarter enroute to her 1:55.2 mile.
The battle for second went to Lexington Lady with Narcissistic coming on for third.
Trained by Kim Roth for owner Ronald Knupp of Anna, Illinois, Whiskersonkittens has now notched four victories in her second season.
It was just as easy for Char N Marg ($2.20) in the sixth race second division.
Casey Leonard urged her away from the six-slot and the Nelson Willis trained filly steadily worked her way to the front before the first quarter was reached in 28.2. After a slow 30 second quarter this race was basically over as Char N Marg drew away by almost eight lengths going to the final turn before she was reeled-in by the field.
When that happen Casey let her out a notch in the lane and Char N Marg ended up a comfortable four length winner in 1:55.2 and stayed unbeaten in 2016 against other ICF 3-year-old fillies for Quaid Racing of Chicago, Illinois.
Ashlee’s Fine Lady finished nicely and was second best while third place honors went to LK’s Nancy Lee.

By Mike Paradise
The idiom “What You See Is What You Get” doesn’t always apply in some cases. For example the original field posted a couple of days ago for Friday $15,000 Plum Peachy stake for ICF 3-year-old fillies didn’t materialize.
I went to sleep Tuesday night after handicapping a single 11-horse series field with the division’s dominant filly Char N Mark in the 10-hole. A few hours after I woke up I learned there was a Race Office snafu when Bucklegirl Bobette was erroneously put in a different race than her connections wanted, a start in the Plum Peachy.
Mistakes happen. I’ve certainly made my share and I’m sure I’ll make more.
Also, redraws for a horse not entered in the right race has been going on long before I came around and they’ll continue when I’m gone.
As far as Friday’s Plum Peachy draw blunder the racetrack had two options. They could have redrawn the race with 12 horses or they could have split the race into a pair of six horse divisions.
They chose the latter.
I’m sure the connections of the six fillies in the first division are very happy their horses don’t have to take on Char N Marg tonight and still have a $15,000 pot to shoot for. There may not be any frowns on the faces of the owners and trainers of the five fillies who will tangle with Char N Marg. They’ll face her in a small field with only one horse to beat to pick-up the $750 fifth place check.

Char N Marg drew the outside race six slot but with only five foes that isn’t much of a concern. The filly has been dominant against other ICF fillies in her division for Quaid Racing of Chicago and will necessitate No Show Wagering on her race.
The Nelson Willis trainee will still be a prohibitive favorite (I’ve got her at 1 to 5) to make it four in a row with regular driver Casey Leonard and go 4-for-4 against other 3-year-olds.
The Sportsmaster filly out of the Jate Lobell dam Zip Up Your Pants has won 6 of 9 starts this season with her only losses coming against open company pacers. Her closest winning margin against ICF fillies was in the Violet Final two weeks ago when he was best by 2 and 1/2 lengths and eased up near the wire.
Char N Mark won her first leg of the Plum Peachy by six widening lengths. She blew away the field by five-plus lengths in a second leg division in early July and a week later was ahead by a half-dozen lengths in her violet elimination.
Ronald Knupp’s Whiskersonkittens is my top choice the first Plum Peachy division. The Kim Roth trainee raced in the rugged filly and mare Open Pace the last two starts against older mares and performed well with a second and a third place finish.
Whiskersonkittens (pp 2, Todd Warren) swept a Late Closer Series during Hawthorne’s winter meet back in January. Her challengers are Likeafireballshot (Jared Finn), Narcissistic (Pat Curtin), Bucklegirl Bobette (Kyle Wilfong), Lexington Lady (Bobby Smolin) and Fox Valley Gypsy (James Lackey).
Easy Does It: The Mike Brink Stable’s Hail Caesar ($3.60) moved to the head of the class in the 3-year-old ICF male trot division with a convincing 4 and 1/2 length victory in last night’s $15,000 Erwin F. Dygert Memorial stake.
Driver Casey Leonard sent the Powerful Emotion gelding out from the seven-slot and dropped him into third as first Primed N Powerful and then Fear took turns taking the field to a 57.4 first half.
When Primed N Powerful came out of the pocket in the last turn Casey followed him up with Hail Caesar. By mid-stretch the outcome of the race wasn’t in doubt as Hail Caesar pulled away to his third win in a row for his Morton, Illinois owner Bill Wright.
Wrightwood came a long way to get second, one length ahead of Primed N Powerful.
The Beulah Dygert Memorial stake for filly trotters also turned out to be a one-sided affair as Vengeful took the $12,000 event by more than five lengths with regular driver Todd Warren.
Getting to the top didn’t come easy for the Kenny Collier trained filly and Vengeful ($5.00) had to fight off a number of challengers before posting a 1:57.4 winning mile for Providence West Inc. of Media, Pennsylvania.
Surviver DI settled for the bridesmaid honors while More Than Likely was third, beaten about 10 lengths.

By Mike Paradise
To borrow the title from one of my favorite songs of the mid-1980’s “The Heat Is On.”
In this case it’s happening both on and off the Hawthorne racetrack.
Sultry, and at times roasting weather has become the norm in the Chicago area and for some owners of ICF 3-year-olds trotters and pacers, they are sweating even more for a big performance from their horses that would vault them into a starting berth of Tournament of Champions Night on Saturday, September 10.
Its leg three this week for both the sophomore trotters and pacers, so time is indeed running out to make a championship appearance.
Thursday night the 3-year-old state-bred trotters will slug it out in a pair of divisions of the Dygert, the Erwin for “the boys” and the Beulah for “the gals.”
They’ll go in back-to-back races, the sixth and seventh, with the colts and geldings going first. The filly Dygert will have a bulky 11-horse field with the two likely favorites Surviver DI and Vengeful leaving from the favorable one and two posts, in that order,
On Friday the Plum Peachy stake series for sophomore filly pacers is on tap with a single 11-horse division. Recent Violet champ Char N Marg sits on top the Plum Peach Standings with 100 points after victories in the first and second legs for Quaid Racing of Chicago.
Saturday night the state-bred second season pacing colts and geldings will take over the spotlight. The first two legs were split into two divisions each and a different pacer prevailed in each: Holdonwe’rerolling and Caffeine Kid in the first and Royale Rose and IYQ YQR in the second.

Securing the Top Spots: The 5-year-old mare Seeyouatthefinish and the 10-year-old horse Mr. Coolie have fortified the top spot in their respective divisions after convincing victories last Sunday.
Seeyouatthefinish (Kyle Husted) 1:54.1 mile on a “good” track was her seventh in 14 season outings for Deb and Bernie Paul of Salem, Illinois. Three of those triumphs have come in the track’s Opens and another in a $17,600 Late Closer Series Final back on May 20.
Mr. Coolie (1:54.1) teamed-up with driver Sam Widger Sunday evening for the veteran pacer’s third consecutive Open Pace for trainer John Zawistowski and owner Wolf Creek Farm of Naperville, Illinois.
In his last two Open wins Mr. Coolie has overcome the handicapped 10-hole and he had the 7-slot in a 9-horse field in the first of his three first place finishes in July.