Since it rejoined the Pennsylvania fair harness racing circuit in 2013 after a 23-year absence, the Bedford Fairgrounds has seen its share of rain-caused cancellations. But the track was blessed with two dry days for its Fair meeting on Thursday and Friday, and Pennsylvania fans and horsepeople were rewarded with a speed show that likely has never been equalled, even if allowing for the different average times in different eras.
Friday was reserved for the three-year-olds – and where to start... Well, to start at the very beginning is a very good place to start, and in the day’s first race, the International Moni filly Quarantina trotted the twicearound oval in 1:58.2, lowering the local all-age track record of OMG Hanover (2016) by two seconds and equalling the fastest PA Fair mile for her class (Plumb, Somerset, 2020). Trainer/driver Todd Schadel co-owns the fleet filly with his wife Christine.
That 1:58.2 Bedford standard would be equalled 100 minutes later by the Bar Hopping gelding Open Bar, driven by Shawn Johnston for trainer Steve Schoeffel and owners Kathy Schoeffel, Virginia Schoeffel, Marian Schilling and Daniel Goehle. Team Shawn Johnston/Steve Schoeffel (and the Schoeffel owners) would sweep the “A” Fair Sires divisions of this class with the Father Patrick gelding Big Baller Beane winning in 1:59.
Three three-year-old pacing fillies would beat 1:57: two in the “A” class, first Four Wide N Wingn(Aaron Johnston) and then Blank Cheek (Todd Schadel) in 1:55.3. The third would be in a “B” event by Little Lady J (Eric Neal) in 1:56.4.
Though the filly Tiamogonedancin’s 1:55.2 Bedford pacing track record wasn’t reached by the females, it was equalled by a three-year-old male pacer, and in a “B” event to boot: Captaincountrystar, a Captaintreacherous gelding trained and driven by Todd Schadel for Mulligan Stables.
The speed show had its primary exponent during Thursday’s two-year-old day in Adriatico Hanover, a Stay Hungry-Armbro Amoretto gelding who shocked with a mile in 1:56.1, which equalled the clocking put up in the same category by Venier Hanover at Bloomsburg in 2017 as the fastest freshman mile ever over the county fair tracks in the state. Adriatico Hanover is co-owned by trainer/driver Todd Schadel, Rick Beinhauer, Timothy Hayes and Dr. Megan Moschgat.
Ten 2:00 miles were recorded during the two-day meet, eight of them by the three-year-olds on Thursday, and three of those produced by trotters.
Todd Schadel trains all six of the winners he drove in this two-day meet to lead the horsemen’s ranks. Eric Neal was next, steering four success stories, and four trainers harnessed two winners to tie for second.
Next stop on the PA Fair Circuit is at Clearfield, roughly-classifiable as being in the northcentral part of the state, the only fair going with four programs: Sunday, July 30, Monday, July 31 and Wednesday, Aug. 2 at 1 p.m., and Tuesday, Aug. 1 at 5:30 p.m.
(Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association, Meadows Standardbred Owners Association and Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association)