Cumberland to have exclusive acing for eight days

Harness racing moves to Cumberland Fair on Sunday. For eight days, the track will enjoy the luxury of being the only live harness track operating in Maine. Scarborough Downs continues its three-week hiatus, re-opening on Oct. 11, and Farmington Fair closes Saturday leaving the 128th edition of Cumberland Fair operating unopposed.

Cumberland’s first-time simulcasting of races last year was well supported by bettors at all of Maine’s off-track wagering facilities. It also proved to be profitable enough so that the directors of Cumberland Farmers Club voted to simulcast its live races again this year. Post times for the Sunday through Sunday harness races are 2 p.m. every day. Cumberland will simulcast its races on the first seven race days. The eighth and final day, Sunday, Oct. 3, is an extended meet day and there will be no simulcasting on that day only.

Cumberland is enjoying the promotional touch of Fred Nichols, who is also race secretary and director of racing. Nichols says anyone attending the races could win the use of a new automobile for three years in a contest that runs each day. The contestant must match three horses in exact order in a given race to be a winner.

The track will also give away $500 each day to a race patron who picks the right envelope out of three possibilities. Each day the prize is not awarded, an additional $500 will be added. If no one picks a winner during the week, on the final day, there will a drawing until the guaranteed $4,000 prize has been won.

Some familiar names appear in Cumberland’s officiating column. Walter McIntire returns as presiding judge, along with associates Frank Hall Jr. and Frank Woodbury Sr. Sharon Duncan backs up Nichols as assistant race secretary and Roger Smith Jr., sits in the backward seat and mans the throttle of the pace car as race starter.

And Ernie “the voice” Cobb III, moves his microphone from Farmington to Cumberland for the race calls (along with the game scores). Cumberland will also feature the divisions of the 3-year-old Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes – trotters on Monday; filly pacers on Tuesday and colt pacers on Wednesday.

But before Cumberland can begin, Farmington Fair must complete two more days of racing, today and Saturday. Friday’s eight-race program features a $2,500 open pace for fillies and mares and a $2,000 pace for winners over. Friday, Farmington will also receive special recognition from the USTA as its “Blue Ribbon Fair for 1999.” Saturday’s 10-dash program features the $4,270 pacing final of the Hight Dash For Cash and a $3,000 Murray and Mary Smith Memorial Pace. Post times are 3 p.m. Friday and 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

PACING BITS: Last Sunday at Farmington Fair, Heath Campbell drove Rhine Wine to a track pacing record of 1:56, erasing the 1:57.1 set last year by Shawn Gray and Yo Ho Ho. Rhine Wine is a 4-year-old In The Pocket horse out of a Most Happy Fella mare and is owned by Lew Hoxie of East Millinocket. Hoxie bought Rhine Wine at The Meadowlands sale in May after he lost his two horses in a fire at Frank Withee’s barn in Greene last winter.

At the start of the $2,000 Pearl Quirrion Memorial Pace, Campbell took Rhine Wine from fifth to the top by the first turn and kept lengthening the distance, circling the half-mile track twice, winning by six and three-quarter lengths over Lee’s Lair, his closest challenger. Our congratulations to both Campbell and Hoxie. Looks like Hoxie has a good one. After all of the medical problems he has had over the past two years, he deserves some good luck.

Rhine Wine drew the three hole in Saturday’s $3,000 Murray and Mary Smith Memorial, a preferred pace. The pilot changes as Dave Ingraham sits in the sulky behind Wine and sitting fourth is Campbell with Chatham Hoochee, another record-setting pacer. That will be one of the best races you’ll see this year in Maine.

Incidentially, Campbell and Valarie Grondin, one of the strongest and most successful harness racing teams in New England, are leaving Maine on Nov.1. They are giving up their Hermon horse farm and under the banner of Val Grondin Stable, the two will ply their craft and try their luck racing New York area tracks this fall and winter.

Campbell said this week, he and Grondin would stable at the Mount Hope Training Center, just outside Middletown, N.Y. “The winter months are the most expensive time of year to operate a public stable,” Campbell said, “and everybody wants to take a shot at racing in New York. This year, I’m going to give it a try.”

Campbell said they would be located about a half-hour from Monticello Raceway and within commuting distance to Yonkers Raceway, Freehold Raceway, Pocono Downs, The Meadowlands and The Meadows. He indicated he probably would drive primarily at Yonkers.