Team Shaw reigned in six winners

CLEARFIELD PA – Team Shaw reigned on the final day (Wednesday) of the four-day harness racing meeting at the Clearfield County (PA) Fairgrounds, with brothers Chris (driver) and Jason (trainer) combining on six winners during the 11-race card, and Jason's son Mason, the Team's principal owner, having a hand in four of the winners – or one for every year of his existence. On a day devoted to three-year-old pacers, Chris and Jason won half of the two Quaker State events and half of the four colt Sire Stakes contests, while taking down three of five Sires features for the fillies.

 

The "Star" of the season so far for the Shaws has been Star Of Terror, a Western Terror gelding owned by Fortunate One LLC, who on Wednesday rewrote a track record that stretched back a good many years, with his 1:59 victory knocking 2/5 of a second off the former mark shared by Shu Hanover (2004), Real Hanover (2005, 11 years ago to the day), and Lahaye (2009). The swift mile was his third 2:00 performance on the PA fair circuit, tops so far in 2016, and the track record for his sophomore pacing colt division was his second (the other included equaling the all-age record at Butler, 2:00.2), tying him with three other horses who also have posted a pair of new standards at the Keystone twicearounds.

 

Another magic mile was posted by the Shaws' filly Unbeamlieveable, who last year won 13 times, all at the fairs, to lead all North American freshman pacing fillies in victories. The daughter of Moon Beam came back to the races earlier in 2016 and posted decent results, but her "summer-y" has improved markedly since Fair Time rolled around, as she now has a 6-4-2-0 record in 2016 along the fair circuit after winning in 1:59.2 for the brothers and Jason's son/owner Mason, who has built a huge college fund that he will start using in about 14 years.

 

The sextet of victories on Wednesday (nobody else had more than one) vaulted the Shaws to honors for the meet, with Chris winning the Buster DiSalvo trophy by winning eight times, seven times with trainees of Jason's to put his brother on top of his column.

 

The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit now has a "split week," at two venues 359 miles apart. The Wayne County Fair at the Honesdale Fair Grounds, in the northeast corner of the state, will race four cards, two under their "special 2-day Sire Stakes meet" tag Saturday and Sunday, and then two for the "fair meet" on Tuesday and Wednesday. Those latter two dates will also feature harness racing at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Waynesburg PA, hometown of Dave Palone and in the southwest corner of the state.