Harness: Daley 2YOs making use of all the lights on the toteboard

Wagering on 2-year-old racing comes with certain inherent risks. However, anybody that managed to be following and wagering on trainer Noel Daley's freshmen last Friday (July 7) may have come away from the experience thinking this is an easy game.

Daley managed to send out four juvenile winners on the combined afternoon at Harrah's Philadelphia-Meadowlands evening programs. Those included winners at odds of 60-1, 105-1 and 29-1, as well as the odds-on Captain Albano in the Kindergarten for juvenile pacing colts.

While bettors may have been surprised for their own reasons, Daley didn't exactly enter the day feeling overwhelmingly confident in what would happen.

"With Zelenskyy [the Harrah's 60-1 shot] he came out of a race where he got backed up behind a horse that wasn't going anywhere," said Daley about the Heston Blue Chip-sired homebred. "Eric Cherry owns him and we were just trying to find out what kind of horse he was, so I told Johnathan [Ahle] to leave the gate."

Ahle left from post eight with Zelenskyy and before he hit the first turn was in front by five.

"When I saw him so far out in front, I thought for sure he was going to stop," said Daley. "But when the half came up in a minute I kind of wished I'd made a bet myself."

Zelenskyy paced a 56 1/5 final half and held the field at bay with a 27 3/5 final quarter.

A few hours later up north Daley would send out a pair of trotters in the Kindergarten Series at the Meadowlands, and it was easy to see why Robinhood, a gelded son of Walner, was sent off at 105-1.

"I don't train them faster than 2:05 before the baby races," said Daley. "Niko [Karna] drove him in the qualifiers and was just trying to hold on to him and keep him together."

Thus, Robinhood's past performances showed two miles where the horse raced from well off-the-pace and finished evenly into solid final halves.

"You could see it in the race, he was just trying to nurse him around the track," said Daley, who saw Robinhood angle off the pylons in early stretch and rally sharply in the final eighth to win convincingly in a 1:55 clocking. A final quarter of 26 4/5 was an improvement over his baby races and may be an indicator of good things to come.

"Niko said there's no bottom to this horse," Daley said of Robinhood.

Robinhood returns with Karna in the sulky on Friday night's opening leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes at the Meadowlands. For those interested in the morning line, he's just 4-1.

Three races later Daley watched Captain Albano, a son of Captaintreacherous, pace home in a career-best 1:53 1/5 in a division of the Kindergarten for pacing colts and geldings. This one was no surprise at all as driver Todd McCarthy had the 1-2 favorite well in-hand crossing the wire.

"He was our best pacer training down," said Daley of Captain Albano, who paced home in 27 2/5 in his first baby race at Magical Acres on June 21 and has since come home in sub-27 territory in both Meadowlands appearances.

"He's a horse that I definitely think races much better coming off a helmet," said Daley.

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There was nothing particularly flashy on paper about Miraculous Deo's past performances that would have sounded the alarm bells to prospective bettors, but Daley liked the Stay Hungry-sired filly's progress.

"I can't say I thought she was ready for that," said Daley about the 29-1 upset provided by Todd McCarthy in her debut, a Kindergarten leg for juvenile pacing fillies.

"She surprised me a bit. Once Todd got room she just took off," said Daley.

Indeed, Miraculous Deo blitzed a final quarter in 26 flat and finished off her career debut in 1:52 just two weeks removed from her first qualifier at Magical Acres, a pedestrian 2:00 mile with an even less inspiring 29 4/5 final quarter.

"It was kind of funny," said Daley. "I rarely go on the other side of the fence [grandstand], but on Friday I was there with my son, and we spent the night in Trotters. After the third time going down to the winner's circle, people started looking at us differently."

It was a miraculous day for Daley and his Stay Hungry filly will hope to continue the winning form in her Pennsylvania Sire Stakes debut on Sunday (July 16) at Pocono.

Not surprisingly, Daley suggests the 2-year-olds he's had on the track may not be the best in his stable.

"There's a few that I like that haven't started yet for one reason or another. There's a couple of Walner fillies that I like," Daley said. One is named Buy A Round, and she's entered in Friday's ninth race at the Meadowlands. Much like her stablemates, Buy A Round baby-raced at Magical Acres and on July 5 was a 2:03 winner while trotting a 27 3/5 final quarter.

While 2-year-olds are exciting this time of year, so too are 3-year-old trotters, and coming into 2023 many had expected Daley's Volume Eight to be making headlines at this time of the year and over the next three weeks. That has not been the case at all, and there's a chance the Chapter Seven-sired colt won't be in the line-up come the first week of August at The Meadowlands for the Hambletonian.

"He bled like a pig in his last start," said Daley bluntly of Volume Eight's sophomore debut in the Reynolds on July 1 at the Meadowlands. "He's never bled on me before and maybe it had something to do with the air quality that night."

Daley was suggesting perhaps the smoke coming down from Canada had impacted his colt's lungs in some manner.

Volume Eight was certified for Lasix and entered for Saturday's Stanley Dancer at the Meadowlands, but Daley wasn't sure if that second start would happen this week or later down the road.

"I trained him this morning [Tuesday] and he trained great. But when he got back to the stall he wasn't putting weight on a leg, and he may have developed a puss pocket. If he's not right I will scratch him," said Daley.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Volume Eight was scratched Thursday morning after this article was written.]

Like many trainers that have been this route in the past, Daley takes the disappointments with a grain of salt.

"Last year he got hurt and we took our time with him, and he won all the late races. If we happen to miss the Hambletonian, there are still a lot of races left to win the division," said Daley.

Fortunately for Daley, he has an ownership group that stands by his decisions, knowing well that his wisdom on these matters has led to some great 3-year-old seasons for non-Hambletonian winners Mr Muscleman and Explosive Matter.