Pocono: Campbell troika takes aim at Beal Memorial

Trainer Jim Campbell entered four horses in the $500,000 Earl Beal Jr. Memorial eliminations last Saturday and managed to qualify three for the lucrative final. Campbell’s fourth horse also will return this weekend in a $75,000 consolation. The Sun Stakes spectacular at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono will offer four major stakes events with Campbell having a presence in half of them.

The Beal, carded as race 12 among 14 on Saturday with a first post at 7:00 p.m., has all of the elements of a great race, with Campbell’s trio enjoying three of the inside five spots and some of the heavy hitters, including the undefeated filly Manchego (post 6), drawing outside.

From the inside out, Campbell has Patent Leather, a son of his former pupil Broadway Hall, the top juvenile trotter in 2002 winning all nine of his starts on his way to Dan Patch year-end honors. Since, Broadway Hall has gone on to be a success as a stallion having sent out 2011 Hambletonian winner Broad Bahn. Patent Leather qualified for the final with a solid second-place finish behind Ohio star Mission Accepted.

“He’s a gritty horse,” said Campbell of Patent Leather. “A lot like his dad.”

Patent Leather has won two of his five starts this year and gets Brian Sears in the bike for Tim Tetrick who will stay with another Campbell entry Crystal Fashion. Patent Leather trotted powerfully down the backstretch losing Mission Accepted in the process, but that rival made a wicked left turn heading into the homestretch and took the decision in the late stages.

“He might have gotten a little lonely with no one in front of him,” said Campbell. “That was a pretty big move he made.” Indeed the sub 27-second burst on the backstretch was impressive even in defeat.

Crystal Fashion came within a nose of beating Manchego in his elimination for the Beal last week and that was no small feat. When Alarm Detector broke on the backstretch it caused a chain reaction with horses needing to check and come to a complete stop. “He really recovered well from that,” said Campbell. “He’s a big colt that raced very well last year and has been racing very well this year.”

Crystal Fashion earned $161,292 with 10 on-the-board finishes in a dozen starts. The gelded son of Cantab Hall drew post four with Tetrick in the bike.

Last year Fashionwoodchopper was a colt Campbell considered his best from the early days, though it took quite some time for the public to find out. Last September Fashionwoodchopper scored a 36-1 shocker in capturing the $252,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship finale at Pocono from post eight.

A winner in five of 11 starts at age 2, Fashionwoodchopper has hardly resembled the same horse in 2018 as he’s gone winless in five tries, but things may be looking up.

“We’ve been tinkering with his equipment,” said Campbell. “He really doesn’t get over this track that well.” That was a surprising admission, but the fact is that the son of Donato Hanover struggled in a Pennsylvania All Stars division just six days before the Beal elimination. “I was very happy with the way he raced last week,” said Campbell of the uncovered effort and third-place finish behind two of the top horses in Saturday’s Beal, Six Pack (post 9) and Evaluate (post 8).

Fashion Forever was one of those caught in traffic in his Beal elimination for Campbell but he’ll have a chance at reasonable money in the single $75,000 consolation (race 7) on the card. “He’s a good gaited horse that was impressive winning a non-winners of three at Harrah’s (June 8), but I was a little disappointed in his Sire Stakes effort at Tioga,” said Campbell. Yannick Gingras picks up the drive from the rail in the consolation.

The luck of the draw turned out of Campbell’s favor in the $300,000 James Lynch Memorial, race nine on the card, when Alexa’s Power landed post six.

“She drew post eight twice in stakes races at Yonkers so I can’t complain about six,” said Campbell while not alluding to the fact that the betting favorites landed the inside two slots in the Lynch.

“She was forced to race without cover and I thought raced well,” said Campbell of the elimination where last year’s champion Youaremycandygirl controlled the pace.

A daughter of Somebeachsomewhere, Alexa’s Power is a full sister to Mac’s Jackpot, a 4-year-old who will compete in the $500,000 Ben Franklin final carded as race 11.