by Rusty Nash for HANA Harness
September 28, 2015 – The
Little Brown Jug Week results are now in for the 2015 HANA Harness Grand
Circuit Handicapping Challenge presented by the Bellino Stables, DRF Harness, Green
Acquisition Corporation, Hambletonian Society, Isle of Capri Pompano Park, Meadowlands
Racing and Entertainment, Northfield Park, Tioga Downs, and Vernon Downs.
The week kicked off with two
days of great fair racing from Delaware Ohio.
Day one featured the Jugette and day two was the Little Brown Jug.
Ray Cotolo jumped out to the
early lead selecting two winners on Wednesday.
He scored with Bettor N Better and Classical Anne for 87 HANA
points. Ray was the only handicapper to
select two winners on a day where the front end was collapsing for most of the
day. Ray Garnett was a solid second when
he landed Speak To Me for 43 HANA points.
The $29 win price was the best of the day. Mark McKelvie earned third without a winner. That is certainly a rarity but the 19 HANA
points earned when Bedroomconfessions and Smexi both finished second stood up to
be third best on the day.
On Little Brown Jug day we
had four handicappers successfully select three winners. Gordon Waterstone and Earl “Super Computer”
Paulson each won with French Laundry, Lost For Words and Wiggle It
Jiggleit. They also ran second with
Classic Martine to earn a top score of 76 HANA points. Dennis O’Hara clicked with the same three
winners. Dennis had Rocking With Dewey
in the fourth race to collect show money and earn 73 HANA points. Coming off a strong performance last week,
the voice of Buffalo Raceway Michael Carter was a very close fourth with the
same three winners but missed in the final tie breaker race. With eight races down and seven to go after a
day off, Ray Cotolo had elbowed his way to the front in our weekly friendly
competition.
After a needed day off all
the handicappers reassembled to battle it out in six races from Hoosier plus the
Milton from Mohawk. Anne Stepien earned
the win and the honors as the only one to select 4 winners. There were two races on the evening where
only two handicappers came up with the winner.
In both cases Anne was one of those two.
First was Anne’s selecting Sunset Glider to win the Kentucky Stallion
Management 2 year old filly trot with Sunset Glider. Anne followed that up with American Passport
in The Elevation 2yoCG pace. Anne’s four
winners earned her 219 HANA points on the evening and propelled her to the
nightly win by more than 100 points!
The top five handicappers
were all able to hold onto their positions this week. Sally Hinckley still has her two hundred plus
point lead over Mark McKelvie. Anne
Stepien remains third but she is much closer now to both Mark and Sally. Bob Zanakis and Earl Paulson were not put
under any pressure this week and retained their fourth and fifth place
positions.
| Standings as of September 26, 2015 - Leg 43 | ||||||
| Total Points | Points Earned | Overall | Position | |||
| Pos | Handicapper | Prior Week | This Week | Total Points | Last Week | Points Back |
| 1st | Sally Hinckley | 3,019.10 | 139.30 | 3,158.40 | 1st | |
| 2nd | Mark McKelvie | 2,796.20 | 131.40 | 2,927.60 | 2nd | 230.8 |
| 3rd | Anne Stepien | 2,529.10 | 256.10 | 2,785.20 | 3rd | 373.2 |
| 4th | Bob Zanakis | 2,418.10 | 50.80 | 2,468.90 | 4th | 689.5 |
| 5th | Earl Paulson | 2,293.70 | 119.80 | 2,413.50 | 5th | 744.9 |
| 6th | Gordon Waterstone | 2,285.20 | 107.80 | 2,393.00 | 6th | 765.4 |
| 7th | Dennis O'Hara | 2,130.00 | 134.20 | 2,264.20 | 7th | 894.2 |
| 8th | Josi Verlingieri | 1,975.50 | 114.60 | 2,090.10 | 10th | 1,068.3 |
| 9th | Bryan Owen | 2,018.50 | 64.90 | 2,083.40 | 8th | 1,075.0 |
| 10th | Rusty Nash | 1,997.40 | 67.70 | 2,065.10 | 9th | 1,093.3 |
| 11th | Michael Carter | 1,818.10 | 78.50 | 1,896.60 | 11th | 1,261.8 |
| 12th | Derick Giwner | 1,671.00 | 152.10 | 1,823.10 | 13th | 1,335.3 |
| 13th | Ray Garnett | 1,678.30 | 100.20 | 1,778.50 | 12th | 1,379.9 |
| 14th | Mark Dezii | 1,665.40 | 109.40 | 1,774.80 | 14th | 1,383.6 |
| 15th | Garnet Barnsdale | 1,657.30 | 51.80 | 1,709.10 | 15th | 1,449.3 |
| 16th | Jay Hochstetler | 1,542.40 | 62.30 | 1,604.70 | 16th | 1,553.7 |
| 17th | Ray Cotolo | 1,207.50 | 134.70 | 1,342.20 | 18th | 1,816.2 |
| 18th | Brandon Valvo | 1,261.20 | 38.00 | 1,299.20 | 17th | 1,859.2 |
| 19th | Mark Deutsch | 819.20 | 91.50 | 910.70 | 19th | 2,247.7 |
With Jug week over we turn
to the anticipated final two weeks of action from The Red Mile. Wednesday through Saturday will hold eight
different sets of Bluegrass divisions.
In addition we will also be making a rare but enjoyable visit to Dayton
Raceway for the Dayton Pacing Derby and the Dayton Trotting Derby.
