Tioga: Field set for Empire Breeders Classic final for sophmore pacing males

New York-sired 3-year-old colt and gelding pacers raced in two $12,500 Empire Breeders Classic eliminations on Sunday afternoon at Tioga Downs, with wins going to Artie's Ideal and Hickfromfrenchlick.

Artie's Ideal (Marcus Miller) left well from post two in the opening elimination and released Rollwithpapajoe (Dexter Dunn) to the top passing the 27 second opening quarter. Rollwithpapajoe would then take the field to the half in 55 seconds, but he would become locked in a side-by-side duel with a first-over Major Blake (Yannick Gingras) at the 1:22 1/5 three-quarters.

On the far turn Major Blake began to backpedal, and that gave room for Artie's Ideal to slip out two-wide, with a second-over Buddy Hill (Brian Sears), who was the favorite in the race, coming three-wide. In the stretch Artie's Ideal wouldn't let Buddy Hill go by, rebuffing his bid to the wire and winning by half a length in a career-best 1:50 1/5. Covered Bridge (Wally Hennessey) was third and World On Edge (Matt Kakaley) got fourth.

"I thought we had a shot," said Marcus Miller. "I thought he was better than his odds looked like. He's been knocking on the door and went a big mile at Batavia last week,so I wasn't counting him out. The first-over horse was tired, so I just had to kind of wait until he backed off, and it worked out beautifully. You can't count on it being that easy every time, but today everything went as planned."

A colt by American Ideal, Artie's Ideal is trained by Erv Miller for owner Bay Pond Racing Stable. This was Artie's Ideal's third career win, but his first victory of 2019, and he has now earned $175,253. Dismissed at 11-1, Artie's Ideal paid $24.80 to win.

In the other elimination Hickfromfrenchlick (Kakaley) led through stations of 28, 56 3/5, and 1:24 4/5, then sprinted home in 27 seconds flat to score by a neck in 1:51 4/5. Shake That House (Sears) followed in the pocket and closed belatedly on the inside for second, and Major March (Dan Dube) turned in a strong first-up effort to collect third. Respect Our Flag (Dunn) was fourth, and Chatelroll (Scott Zeron) was the fifth-place finisher from the eliminations to draw into the final.

Trainer Ray Schnittker also co-owns Hickfromfrenchlick, a colt by So Surreal, with partners Nolamaura Racing LLC. and Thomas Spatorico. This was his ninth career win, and he has now earned $259,716. He was the even-money second choice and returned $4.30 to win.

This is how the field will line up for next Sunday's final:

1-Hickfromfrenchlick
2-Artie's Ideal
3-Major March
4-Shake That House
5-Covered Bridge
6-Chatelroll
7-Respect Our Flag
8-Buddy Hill
9-World On Edge
AE1-Rollwithpapajoe