May June Character named Pa's Horse of Year

No matter the month, the 3-year-old pacer May June Character certainly loved racing--and winning--in the Keystone State, with his four Sire Stakes victories (including the Championship) along with other important victories in “open” stakes earning the gelding honors as both Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Pacer of the Year as well as overall Pennsylvania Horse of the Year.

A son of Shady Character trained by Mickey Burke (himself an honoree as Pa. Trainer of the Year) for A Bunch Of Characters II and Sandy Goldfarb of New York, May June Character scored Sire Stakes victories in preliminary legs at each of the state’s three harness tracks, and then returned to Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs to contest the $100,000 Sire Stakes Championship, where he roared through the stretch to take top honors in 1:50.3, equaling the Pocono mark for sophomore geldings.

But May June Character’s “love affair” with Pennsylvania didn’t end there. He was victorious in a division of the revived Battle of the Brandywine at Harrah’s Chester, and he was an entrant in the state’s richest harness race, the Adios, right at his--and Burke’s--home track, The Meadows.

May June Character finished a good second in his elimination heat, thereby qualifying for the comeback race. And in the Adios final, he exploded from third-over to be a going-away winner of Pennsylvania’s most prestigious harness race.

Of the $302,152 May June Character won in 2007, $282,985 of it was rung up in Pennsylvania. And with stakes wins at every track, May June Character deserves to be Pennsylvania Horse of the Year.

May June Character, and other stars of the past season in Pennsylvania racing, will be honored at the first annual “Celebration of Pennsylvania Harness Racing,” to be held Sunday, Feb. 10 at Harrah’s Chester racetrack near Philadelphia.

Dinner tickets, which cost $25, and other information can be obtained from Sandy Tetkoskie or Fonda Civitello of the Harrisburg Commission Office at (717) 783-6320. (PHRC)

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