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Art
Major Wins $369,000 Cane Pace; By Tom White Delaware, Ohio--Art Major continued his late-season hot streak with a
convincing victory in the $369,188 Cane Pace Final at Freehold
Raceway on
Labor Day. This was also the first leg of Pacing's Triple Crown
which
includes the Little Brown Jug (Sept. 19) at Delaware, Ohio, and
the Messenger
Pace (Oct. 26) at The Meadows.
The final two stops on the 2002 Road to the
57th Little Brown Jug comes
this Saturday with the $250,000-est Jug Preview at Scioto Downs
and the
$230,000 Simcoe Stakes at Mohawk Raceway in Canada.
The victory was Art Major's sixth straight, all
in stakes, and ninth win
in his last 10 starts. The Artsplace colt, who cost $65,000 as a
yearling,
hiked his career bankroll to $773,329 for owners Deena Frost of
Delray Beach,
Florida; Tom and Louis Pontone of Kearny, New Jersey; and Deborah
Domiano of
Old Forge, Pa. The colt is trained by Monte Gelrod.
Art Major, who had Post 5 outgunned stablemate
Million Dollar Cam from
Post 3, for the early lead but after being parked outside for the
first
half-mile, tired, and finished seventh. Monsoon Hall finished
second over
Cam's Fast Gun. Art Major won by four lengths in 1:53.1.
Winning driver John Campbell was all smiles in
the winner's circle
following the race. "It never gets old winning a Triple Crown
race. If you
can't get excited about winning a race like the Cane, you're in
the wrong
business." He said that the fast early fractions did not concern
him because
he expected Art Major to be used hard getting the lead. "He just
put his head
down and went to work. He won with something to spare."
Art Major set all of the pace, with quarters in
:27.3, :56.4 and 1:25.
Campbell, who has won the Jug three times with Nick's Fantasy,
Life Sign and
Merger, may have a difficult decision to make concerning his "work"
on Jug
day. John is also the regular driver for Meadowlands Pace winner
Mach Three.
However, Mach Three has not raced since finishing fifth to Art
Major and
Million Dollar Cam in the Confederation Cup on August 18th at
Flamboro Downs.
Since Freehold and Flamboro Downs are both
half-mile tracks, Art Major
might just take a liking to Delaware's half-mile saucer!!!
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