Will Shark bite 3 times?

What you see isn't necessarily what you might get, as trainer Erv Miller said Thursday he likely won't be starting Shark Gesture in both the Messenger and Matron, two major stakes at two different tracks scheduled two days apart, that the colt has been entered into.

Three-year-old colt pacer Shark Gesture has been entered in both the Matron at Dover Downs and Messenger at Yonkers, with the two finals slated for two days apart. But with a Matron elim slated for next Monday, and then the Messenger the following Saturday followed by the Matron final 48 hours later, the Miller-trained colt could make three starts in seven days.

But hold on! Miller told harnessracing.com Thursday morning that the primary purpose on entering Shark Gesture in the $213,825 Matron was to not miss the week before the $546,830 Messenger, and that he might not put the son of Cam’s Card Shark through such a grueling period even if he is in the midst of making a late-season push for divisional honors.

“I don’t know if I’m going to race him all three, I’ll have to see,” said Miller. “(The owners) wanted to race him in the Matron elim to get another race going to Yonkers. We will have to enter back in the Matron final, so we’ll have to see if we do it or not.”

Shark Gesture has won eight of 15 starts this year, and certainly proved his durability when he won the Breeders Crown final Oct. 28 at Woodbine one week after falling to the track in an at-the-wire accident that resulted in bruises, scrapes and abrasions. Shark Gesture followed that up Nov. 5 with a win in a Progress Pace elim at Dovers, and then a fifth-place finish in the $348,900 final Nov. 12.

Although the Messenger appears to be the main goal—Shark Gesture is the likely favorite among the compact field of six entered—over the upcoming week, Miller says he has concerns over the fact that the colt has never started on a half-mile track.

“The thing to still be determined is if he can get around a half good enough to do as well as we’d like,” said Miller. “We’ll just have to see.”

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