Harness racing on the agricultural fair circuit moves from its northernmost stop at Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle to Topsham Fair in southern Maine next week. Beginning Sunday, Aug. 6, Topsham will start its six-day harness meet in conjunction with its 145th edition of its annual agricultural exhibition.

But before the horses and drivers make the big shift south, NMF has two remaining race days, tonight and Saturday, to complete its week-long fair meet. Tonight’s eight-race program features a $3,000 Northern Maine Fair Invitational Pace and two divisions of 3-year-old Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes colts and geldings, each with full eight-horse fields and each division racing for a $5,668 purse. Post time is 7 p.m.

Saturday NMF closes out its six days of fair racing by shifting to afternoon racing for its eight-race card with a 1 p.m. post time.

Topsham Fair is the next stop on the racing fair circuit. Some familiar faces fill key spots as officials of Topsham’s six days of racing. Roger Smith Jr. moves from his starter’s job at Bangor Raceway to presiding judge at Topsham, with the able assistance of Frank Woodbury and Pam Merrill. Veteran horse classifier, Ken Sumner, moves into the race secretary’s chair; Joe Gunn returns in the pace car as starter and Jim Finley is the mutuels director.

The MSBS 2-year-old divisions are scheduled to compete at Topsham, with the trotters going on opening day; the pacing fillies scheduled for Monnday and the pacing colts on Tuesday. The 3-year-old divisions have the week off and return at Skowhegan Fair the following week. Topsham’s racing schedule calls for a post time of 7 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, (no racing Wednesday) and Thursday and shifts to a 2 p.m. post time on Friday and Saturday.

Case seventh, Grondin ninth

Last Monday, during Hambletonian Week at The Meadowlands, two female drivers from Maine — Bangor’s Valerie Grondin and Lewiston’s Kelly Case were invited to compete in the $22,500 Women’s International Trot. In the field of 10 trotters, Case drew the three hole with Simple Gifts and was listed as a 7-2 in the morning line, while Grondin drew the nine hole with Super Punk, a 15-1 long shot.

At the start of the trot race, horses were breaking all over the race track. Odds-on favorite to win the race, Count On Jeff and Monica Thors (last year’s winning driver), broke as the starting gate pulled away. Case was ahead of the breaking trotters while Grondin got caught in the traffic and had to maneuver her trotter and herself out of trouble. With some quick moves, Grondin missed hitting anything on the track and settled on the rail in ninth place.

At the half-mile marker, Grondin pulled Super Punk to the outside and began picking off her competition. As she rounded the final turn and headed down the long Meadowlands homestretch, she was gaining while other trotters were fading. Grondin crossed the finish line in second place behind trotter Ashley Hall and driver Lella McIlMurray in the winning time of 1:56.4.

After a bunch of placings because of the breaks and infractions, Case finished seventh and the winning combination of 7-9 produced a whopping $827.20 exacta and the three outside winning horse combination of 7-9-8 paid an unheard of trifecta of $16,023.00.

Harness racing’s biggest trot race takes place Saturday afternoon with the 75th edition of The Hambletonian at The Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. The one-mile race for 3-year-old trotters carries a $1.2 million purse and is the first leg of harness racing’s Triple Crown and will be simulcast into all of Maine’s off-track wagering locations. The Hambletonian at the Big M, will also be telecast in Maine on CBS TV stations from 2 to 3 p.m.

Miller’s Post Time OTB in Bangor will open at 11 a.m. and post time for the first race at The Meadowlands is 11:30 a.m. Friday at The Meadowlands, a representatives from Miller’s OTB and The Maine Harness Promotion Board will each present a blanket to race winners.

Scarborough’s schedule

Two weeks ago, Scarborough Downs dropped Tuesday night racing from its racing schedule. This week, a Scarborough official said the track will discontinue racing Thursday nights as well. Beginning this week, Scarborough Downs will race a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday schedule until after the three-week hiatus for Maine’s final three racing fairs in October.

Bowden on Mass. board

At an election, held recently at Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville, Mass., the Massachusetts Harness Horsemen Association elected harness driver James Hardy as president of the association that represents drivers at the track. Also elected was Bangor native, Greg Bowden to its board of directors.