Northfield: World record effort by Seven Colors in Carl Milstein Memorial

Seven Colors, making his first start for co-owner/trainer Andrew Harris and co-owners Bill Pollock and Bruce Areman following a private purchase, churned out a world record 1:48 1/5 victory from first-over in Saturday night's $300,000 Carl Milstein Memorial for 3-year-old colt and gelding pacers at MGM Northfield Park.

Starting from post one, Seven Colors and driver Dexter Dunn got away in the third position and watched as Buzzsaw Russ (John De Long) and Redwood Hanover (James MacDonald) traded the lead, with the latter taking command beyond a brisk 25 3/5 opening quarter. Dunn would then send Seven Colors off the cones on the second turn and moved up uncovered to within about a length of Redwood Hanover at the 53 4/5 half-mile marker.

Redwood Hanover maintained control around the third bend and to the 1:21 three-quarters, but Seven Colors continued to loom on the rim, then hit top speed as they raced in the backstretch for the final time and blew past Redwood Hanover coming into the final turn. Tip Top Cat (Yannick Gingras) took up the chase from first-over after Seven Colors cleared, but there was no catching Seven Colors on this night as he won by two lengths. Tip Top Cat was the runner-up, followed by Buzzsaw Russ, Redwood Hanover, and Save America (Scott Zeron).

The final time of 1:48 1/5 knocked four-fifths of a second off the previous record of 1:49 for a 3-year-old colt pacer on a half-mile track set by Betting Line at the Delaware County Fair on September 22, 2016.

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"I just rode up quietly and then towards the end of the backstretch there he had plenty of go," Dunn remarked after the race. "He really kicked home great."

A son of Stay Hungry bred by Alan Byler, Seven Colors now has a summary of 6-2-3 from 18 lifetime starts, and he has earned $348,398. He paid $5.40 to win as the favorite.

"I've really just say a big thank you to Bill Pollock and Bruce Areman for taking this ride with me. It's working out really awesome for us," said Harris, who added that Seven Colors will be heading back to the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes program to try and get some additional points and a berth in the Championship of that event. "Brian [former trainer Brian Brown] did such a good job with this horse, and he had him prepped so well. I was actually pretty confident. I watched him against really good horses last week (a second-place finish to Confederate in the Cane Pace at the Meadowlands), so I was like, if the horse on the front gets taxed too much, we can take advantage of that."