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Donato camp surprised by no detention

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September 28, 2007

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With seven Bluegrass divisions for 2 �and 3-year-old colt pacers on the Saturday program at The Red Mile, the two Bluegrass splits for 3-year-old colt trotters will not race out of detention, and that has left trainer Steve Elliott unhappy. Elliott told harnessracing.com he likely would not have entered his star trotter Donato Hanover in the Bluegrass had he known it would not be raced out of the detention barn.

According to director of racing Connie Hochstetler, with 70 stalls available in the detention barn, there wasn�t enough room for all nine of the stakes races on the program. Track co-owner George Segal, in conjunction with Hochstetler, then made the decision to keep all of the pacing races in the detention barn.

�It was our intention to put all the races in the detention barn but there simply wasn�t enough room,� said Segal. �There is just the room for the 70 horses and we decided to put all the paces in there. But the Kentucky Futurity (on Saturday, Oct. 6) will definitely race out of the detention barn.�

Although Elliott correctly pointed out that the condition sheet stated the Bluegrass for 3-year-old colt trotters was a detention-barn race, the sheet did offer the following disclaimer: �All races are subject to 24-hour detention.�

In defending the decision, Hochstetler noted that the Elliott-trained Donato Hanover did not race from a detention barn while in Du Quoin for the World Trotting Derby over Labor Day weekend, and that the same situation occurred last year when the three Bluegrass splits for the same division did not race from detention due to the stall count.

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