The Meadows: Hambo favorite Crystal Fashion gets back on track with PASS win

Crystal Fashion rebounded nicely from his tough beat as the Hambletonian favorite, putting away the field with a powerful first over bid and sprinting off to a 5-length victory in 1:53 — a track record for 3-year-old gelding trotters — in Wednesday’s $167,288 Pennsylvania Sires Stake at The Meadows. Lawmaker took the other split in the event known as the Hickory Smoke.

Crystal Fashion won his Hambletonian elimination but was parked throughout the final, losing by only 1-1/4 lengths. Following that maximum effort, trainer Jim Campbell and owner Jules Siegel of Fashion Farms decided to skip the Zweig to give Crystal Fashion more time to recover and earn PASS points in the Hickory Smoke.

That strategy paid off Wednesday as the son of Cantab Hall-Window Willow, the 1-9 favorite, exploded from third down the backside for Tim Tetrick, put away Scirocco Rob and erased the previous record of 1:53 2/5 set by Lady’s Dude. Scirocco Rob was a clear second, with early leader Hill Street third.

“Anytime you come out of a two-heat race, you’re always concerned with how they’ll bounce back,” Campbell said. “But he looked as good as he’s ever been. He seems to like (first-over trips). He’s a pretty laid-back horse, and he likes just riding up there.”

The win lifted Crystal Fashion’s lifetime bankroll to $686,974 and propelled him into the $252,000 PASS championship set for Sept. 2 at Pocono.

Lawmaker lacked the points to reach the championship, but his win was impressive nonetheless. He zipped to the point from post 7 for Anthony MacDonald and rolled home in 1:53 4/5, 8-3/4 lengths ahead of the rallying Exarch, with Can’t Afford It third. A key point in the race came at the quarter, where MacDonald and Lawmaker wouldn’t release Can't Afford It in his bid for the lead.

“I wouldn’t have let my mother go at that point,” MacDonald said. “We’d had everything our own way. Obviously, it was a tremendous heartbreak when he broke stride in the Hambletonian, but he bounced back. When he was younger and green, he’d wait for them on the front end. He was all business today. I never even pulled the ear plugs.”

Andrew Harris trains the son of Muscle Massive-Pretty Amigo, who now boasts $286,247 in career earnings, for Thestable Lawmaker group.

-edited release (Evan Pattak for The Meadows)