Saturday’s $300,000 invitational honors Northfield Park’s former owner.

by Jay Wolf

Trainer Scott Cox has been plying his trade at MGM Northfield Park “for a long time.” On Saturday night (Aug. 14), Cox will send out the tough-luck longshot Chase H Hanover in Northfield Park’s richest race, the $300,000 Carl Milstein Memorial Invitational for 3-year-old colt pacers.

Chase H Hanover, who will be driven by Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. from post #8, continued his streak of poor post position draws.

“I have been waiting for (his luck) to turn around,” said Cox. “Someday it will turn around. Bad post positions and bad spots. Hopefully, it will change soon.”

The gelded son of Captaintreacherous—Calgary Hanover is co-owned by Jason Ash of Delaware, OH and Cox, who has recorded more than 1,100 career training wins and $7.7 million in earnings, mostly at Northfield Park.

Chase H Hanover finished third in the $500,000 Messenger Stakes Final on July 2 and was placed fourth in the $700,000 Meadowlands Pace Final on July 17. His last start was an eighth-place finish in the $375,000 Adios Pace Final on July 31, beaten by just 3 ¼ lengths.

“Despite not getting a purse check, I thought his last start was one of his better races,” said Cox. “He finished strong [last quarter in :26.]. He’s done well. I don’t think we have over-raced him. He has been coming out of those races well.”

On the year, Chase H Hanover has recorded a 1-1-4 record in 10 starts and $157,288 in earnings.

Combined with his freshman season performance, he has been on the board in 15 of 20 career starts and has amassed over $383,000 in earnings.

Chase H Hanover, who trains at Sahbra Farms in Streetsboro, OH, will be making only his second purse start in the Buckeye State. Last year, he captured the $54,206 Standardbred at the Delaware County Fair on Jug Day in a world-record-equaling 1:51.1.

“We didn’t overstake him a year ago. We kind of picked our spots. This year we staked him a little bit more,” Cox said.

The morning line favorites in the Milstein are Charlie May (Brett Miller; Post #7) and Water Sports Teen (Joe Bongiorno; Post #2).

Charlie May (5-2 morning line) comes into the invitational off an Ohio Sire Stake and Ohio State Fair wins – in 1:50.4 and 1:51.4, respectively. The homebred McArdle gelding finished first in the Meadowlands Pace final, but was disqualified and placed ninth for interference. He is owned by Don Tiger and trained by Steve Carter.

Water Sports Teen (3-1 morning line) joined the Jennifer Bongiorno barn in late June after Joshua Jay Graber purchased the son of Somebeachsomewhere from Greg Luther’s Black Magic Racing. Water Sports Teen won three straight for the new connections before a third-place finish in the Adios Pace Final.

“It will be an interesting race,” said Cox. “Charlie May is a phenomenal horse.”

The race honors Carl Milstein, who owned Northfield Park from 1984 until his passing in 1999. The Milstein family operated the track until July, 2018.

The Milstein undercard features a pair of $100,000 invitational events restricted to Ohio bred older horses and Ohio Sire Stake divisions for 3-year-old colt trotters, 2-year-old colt pacers and freshman colt trotters.

The Tom Aldrich President’s Trot will feature a one of this year’s top trotters nationally, It’s Academic (Yannick Gingras – Post #8) and a pair of millionaires – Mission Accepted (Chris Page – Post #7) and I Know My Chip (Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. – Post #5). The field of nine has combined for 208 career wins and earnings of $5.1 million.

The Myron Charna Invitational may be another showdown between Gold Digger King (Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. – Post #8) and Sectionline Bigry (Tyler Smith – Post #9) despite the poor post positions.

Winning Ticket (Aaron Merriman) looks to stay perfect on the season in the first $50,000 division of the OHSS for sophomore colt trotters. The gelded son of Triumphant Caviar has earned $164,500 this year while winning all eight 2021 starts for co-owner/trainer Chris Beaver, Steve Zeehandelar, Tim Homan and Jim Burnett.

The post time for the 16-race card is 6:00 p.m.

Race #10 – MGM Northfield Park

$300,000 Carl Milstein Memorial (estimated post time 9:30 p.m.)

PP – Horse – Driver – Trainer – ML Odds

1 – Bettor Sun – Doug McNair – Gregg McNair – 8-1
2 – Water Sports Teen – Joe Bongiorno – Jennifer Bongiorno – 3-1
3 – Rockin On Venus – Tyler Smith – Kelly O’Donnell – 10-1
4 – Alilthundadownunda – Chris Page – Jessica Johnson – 20-1
5 – Bayfield Beach – Yannick Gingras – Ron Burke – 6-1
6 – Mysweetboymax – Aaron Merriman – Sam DiPinto – 12-1
7 – Charlie May – Brett Miller – Steve Carter – 5-2
8 – Chase H Hanover – Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. – Scott Cox – 15-1
9 – Heart Of Chewbacca – Dan Noble – Ron Burke -9-2

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