Delaware County Fair: Bird And Grenade soars in the Standardbred
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Bird And Grenade and Silken Sweet visited the winner's circle following the pair of Standardbred tests for 2-year-old colts and geldings on Thursday afternoon at the Delaware County Fair.
Driven by Brady Brown in the $50,000 race for the trotters, Bird And Grenade raced in third through opening-half fractions of 29 1/5 and 58 3/5, then went first-over towards leader and 3-5 favorite Flirtnwiththepilot (Peter Wrenn) on the way to the 1:27 3/5 three-quarters. Flirtnwiththepilot was able to stave off Flirtnwiththepilot for a while, but on the final bend Bird And Grenade was able to wear him down and go by. From there Bird And Grenade trotted clear to win by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:56 3/5 with Flirtnwiththepilot second and Vanguard (Tim Tetrick) third after overcoming an early miscue.
A Father Patrick gelding, Bird And Grenade is trained by Steve Schoeffel for owners Kathy Schoeffel and Four Cousins Stable. Bred by Order By Stable, Bird And Grenade broke his maiden in his ninth start, has now earned $101,811 and paid $13.60 to win as a 5-1 offering.
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The $40,000 Standardbred for the pacers was a non-betting event before the pari-mutuel card. Silken Sweet (Gingras) left out quickly from post one but yielded to sit in the pocket behind a two-wide Solid Character (David Miller) beyond the 27 2/5 opening quarter. Solid Character kept the tempo quick after he hit the front, reaching the half in 55 1/5 and the three-quarters in 1:23 3/5, with Silken Sweet coming back to the outside on the last turn. Solid Character was game and tried to fight off Silken Sweet, but it was to no avail, as the pocket-sitter had the better kick in the lane and got up to tally by three-quarters of a length in 1:52 3/5. Solid Character and Special Menu (Dexter Dunn) rounded out the top three.
The winning Betting Line gelding is trained by Deborah Daguet for owners D Racing Stable and Donald MacRae. Silken Sweet, who was bred by Vieux Carre Farms and Max Hempt, has a summary of 3-0-1 from ten trips behind the gate and has pocketed $46,614.