Harness Racing: Googoo Gaagaa on the comeback trail

World record-holder Googoo Gaagaa, who has been on the sidelines since May 11 due to surgery to repair an entrapped epiglottis, returned to the track on Monday morning at Ocean Downs. The Richard Hans trainee qualified in wire-to-wire fashion and tripped the timer in 1:59 2/5.

Regular driver Corey Callahan guided the 4-year-old trotter through fractions of 30 2/5, 1:00 3/5 and 1:30 4/5. At the wire the duo was 11 1/2 lengths the best and Callahan said it was a good effort.

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A son of pacer Cams Rocket, the unusually bred trotter made a name for himself by clocking a 1:50 4/5 mile at Pocono Downs as a 3-year-old. He also scored two $500,000 wins - Earl Beal Memorial and Colonial – while earnings $624,700.

“He will qualify one more time at Philly and try to get a start in before the Credit Winner at Vernon,” said Callahan, who admitted the Credit Winner may not be possible since entries are accepted based on earnings in 2013 and Googoo Gaagaa only has $2,000 in winnings this year.

With only a few major races for older trotters remaining, if Googoo Gaagaa misses the Credit Winner he could race in overnights and aim for his 5-year-old campaign.