Ben Franklin Free-For-All Pace

Last updated
Ben Franklin Free-For-All Pace
Location Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
Inaugurated 2007
Race type Harness race for Standardbred pacers
Website Mohegan Sun Pocono racing
Race information
Distance 1 mile
(1609 metres or 8 furlongs)
Surface Dirt, 5/8 mile oval
Track Pocono Downs
Qualification 4yo & up
Purse $500,000 (2016)

The Ben Franklin Free-For-All Pace is harness racing stakes race for older Standardbred pacers run annually since 2007 at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. [1]

Harness racing form of horse racing

Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait. They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, occupied by a driver, although in Europe, jockeys riding directly on saddled trotters is also conducted.

Standardbred American breed of horse

The Standardbred is an American horse breed best known for its ability in harness racing, where members of the breed compete at either a trot or pace. Developed in North America, the Standardbred is recognized worldwide, and the breed can trace its bloodlines to 18th-century England. They are solid, well-built horses with good dispositions. In addition to harness racing, the Standardbred is used for a variety of equestrian activities — including horse shows and pleasure riding — particularly in the midwestern and eastern United States, and southern Ontario.

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania City and County seat in Pennsylvania, United States

Wilkes-Barre is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. It is one of the principal cities in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley, it is second in size to the nearby city of Scranton. The Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census, making it the fourth-largest metro/statistical area in the state of Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding Wyoming Valley are framed by the Pocono Mountains to the east, the Endless Mountains to the west, and the Lehigh Valley to the south. The Susquehanna River flows through the center of the valley and defines the northwestern border of the city.

Contents

Historical race events

Boulder Creek set a new track record time of 1:48 3/5 in winning the 2007 inaugural race. [2]

Sweet Lou, the 2011 winner of the Dan Patch Award for Two-Year-Old Male Pacer, won the 2013 Ben Franklin FFA Pace in which he set a new track and World Record for a 5/8 mile track with a time of 1:47 flat. [3]

Sweet Lou is a retired Standardbred Champion Pacing Stallion in the sport of harness racing. He was sired by Yankee Cruiser and out of the mare Sweet Future. In a two-year-old season in which Sweet Lou won ten of his twelve starts, he capped it off with a 7½ length win in the Breeders Crown 2YO Colt & Gelding Pace in a World Record time of 1:49 flat for the mile. He was voted the 2011 American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Pacer. He went on to a highly successful career in racing and added the 2014 American Champion Male Pacer and American Pacer of the Year awards to his resumé. Sweet Lou is the only horse in history to win six straight mile races in times faster than 1:48.

In 2016, Always B Miki equaled Sweet Lou's World Record time in winning the June 25, 2016 Ben Franklin FFA Pace elimination race. He came back to win the July 2 final in exactly the same World Record time. [4]

Always B Miki is a Champion American Standardbred pacer. As a younger horse, he raced mainly at Hoosier Park in Indiana but came to national prominence in his three-year-old season. Favored to win the final of the Breeders Crown 3YO Colt & Gelding Pace, the colt fractured his leg before the race and needed to undergo surgery. After a long layoff, he returned to win the 2015 Breeders Crown Open Pace. At age five, he won several major races and set multiple speed records including a world record of 1:46 at The Red Mile. He received the 2016 Dan Patch Award for Harness Horse of the Year.

Records

Most wins by a driver
Most wins by a trainer

Jimmy Takter is a harness racing horse trainer based in East Windsor, New Jersey, who came to the U.S. in 1982. He was inducted into the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.

Stakes record

Ben Franklin Free-For-All Pace winners

Year
 Winner
 Age
Driver
 Trainer
 Owner
 Time
Purse
2016 Always B Miki 5 David Miller Jimmy Takter Bluewood Stable, Roll The Dice Stable, Christina E. Takter1:47 0/0$500,000
2015Luck Be Withyou4George Napolitano, Jr.Chris OakesJohn Craig1:49 0/0$500,000
2014 Sweet Lou 5 Ron Pierce Ron Burke Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Lawrence Karr, Phillip Collura1:47 0/0$500,000
2013 Foiled Again 9 Yannick Gingras Ron BurkeBurke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Lawrence Karr, Phillip Collura1:49 2/5$500,000
2012Betterthancheddar4 George Brennan Casie Coleman Steve Calhoun & West Wins Stable1:48 0/0$500,000
2011We Will See4Ron PierceSam DePintoShannon DePinto, Earl Smith, Jerry Silva1:48 4/5$500,000
2010Vintage Master4 Tim Tetrick Jimmy Takter Brittany Farms & Brian Monieson Trust1:49 0/0$500,000
2009Mister Big6 Brian Sears Virgil Morgan, Jr.Joseph Muscara, Sr.1:48 0/0$500,000
2008Artistic Fella5Tim TetrickSteve ElliottJoseph Alborano1:48 0/0$500,000
2007 Boulder Creek 7Tim TetrickMark SilvaClifford Siegel, Lee Wasserman, John Fodera 1:48 3/5$300,000

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References

  1. ↑ USTA Harness Racing Newsroom July 20, 2007 article titled "Field set for Ben Franklin Pace" Retrieved October 11, 2016
  2. ↑ USTA July 22, 2007 article titled Boulder Creek nips Lis Mara in Ben Franklin Retrieved October 11, 2016
  3. ↑ 2016 Woodlands Stud profile of Sweet Lou Retrieved October 15, 2016
  4. ↑ Standardbred Canada July 2, 2016 article titled Always Be Miki Equals World Record November 27, 2016
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