One Eight Hundred aims to be No. 1 in Weiss
At 2h03, on April 24, 2021 • By KEN WEINGARTNER, USTA
After winning starts in two preliminary rounds of the Bobby Weiss Series for 3-year-old male pacers, One Eight Hundred will attempt to close out the event with a victory in Saturday’s $40,000 final at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Purchased at the 2019 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale under the name Some Terror for $800,000 — the auction record for a yearling pacer — the colt won one of five races at age 2 before being shut down by trainer Nancy Takter and given time to mature.
He returned this season and won his debut by 6-3/4 lengths in 1:50.2, with a :26.1 last quarter-mile, in the opening round of the Weiss on April 3. He sat out the second leg, then won gate-to-wire in last week’s third round by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:52. In that start, he paced the first quarter in :26.2 before settling into a :58.2 middle half and kicking home in :27.1 over a track labeled ‘good.’
“I think he’s handled those two miles very well,” driver Josert Fonseca said. “He surprised me — I think he probably surprised everybody — how good he did it. He showed a lot of maturity to open up in 26-and-a-piece and be able to back off and be cool with it. I was really happy to see that.
“Maturity wise, he’s gotten a lot smarter. He knows what he’s doing. He’s so versatile now, you can leave with him or you can back him down and he’s OK either way. I think that’s what I like most about him from last year to this year.”
One Eight Hundred, a son of Somebeachsomewhere, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Weiss final. He will start from post six with Fonseca in the sulky. The colt is owned by Brixton Medical Inc. and Takter.
Racing begins at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Pocono.
