Dover: Progress Pace eliminations held

Dandy Ideal and Madden Oaks were the winners of two $35,000 Progress Pace eliminations for 3-year-old colts and geldings on Thursday night at Bally's Dover.

Fresh off winning the Matron last week over the same oval, Dandy Ideal (Jason Bartlett) led through fractions of 26, 54 4/5 and 1:21 3/5 on his way to a facile 2 1/2 length victory in 1:49 1/5. Railroad Station (Yannick Gingras), Fallout (Tim Tetrick) and TH Colby (Scott Zeron), a trio of Ron Burke trainees, also made next Wednesday's final.

Hunter Oakes sent out Dandy Ideal, an American Ideal gelding, for owners Susan Oakes, Thaddeus Wier and Alan Johnston. Bred by Dr. Stephen Dey III with Dandy Farms Inc., he has a summary of 16-5-2 from 28 outings, has pocketed $1,048,979 and returned $2.20 to win.

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In the other elimination Madden Oaks (Simon Allard) got shuffled back to last before the 1:22 1/5 three-quarters but fanned out widest and rallied past Papi's Rocket (Gingras), who had taken command from first-up on the last turn from a tiring Prince Hal Hanover (Todd McCarthy), by a nose in a 1:50 3/5 mile. Captain Optimistic (Zeron) and Fusion (Dexter Dunn) got shuffled behind Prince Hal Hanover and had to settle for third and fourth and Swingtown (Tetrick) also moved on as the fifth-place finisher from the two eliminations with the higher seasonal earnings.

By Huntsville and trained by Cam Capone, Madden Oaks was bred by The Bay's Stable LLC., Polger Holdings LLC., South Mountain Stables and Mark Mullen. Owned by Samir Tawil with Paul Kautz, Alexander Henn and Nathan Fullmer, Madden Oaks has eight victories, five seconds and three thirds from 20 appearances, has put away $700,687 and paid $33.20 to win.