Cordarius Stays Hot, So Does the Weather

By Mike Paradise for the IHHA

Hot (97 degrees) and humid (80 per cent) with a “feels like” temperature of 112 degrees made for an uncomfortable afternoon of harness racing Friday at Du Quoin for both horses and horsemen alike, nevertheless the sweltering weather didn’t slow down the red-hot driver Cordarius Stewart a bit.

The 29-year-old native widened his lead as the driver colony’s frontrunner with five more first place finishers. “Cash Deposit,” as he’s known by many his fellow horseman, is winning at a sizzling 33 per clip thus far at the Hawthorne sponsored Illinois State Fairgrounds meeting.

Stewart’s “five-bagger” on Friday consisted of Perfect Promises (3rd race), Tell The Dream (4th), Swan Appeal (7th), Fox Valley Tasha (11th) and L Dees Jack Lopez (12th). Cordarius now has 16 winning drives in the first six Fair Grounds programs. Casey Leonard is next with 11.

Friday’s trotting “Winner’s Over” feature trot saw last season’s ICF freshman filly champion Marvelous Mystery show her heels to a field of older, and mostly male, trotters in front-end fashion.

Nicely rated by her trainer and co-owner Curt Grummel, Marvelous Mystery sprinted out from the one-slot to a quick lead, cut fractions of 28.2, 58.1 and 1:27.4 and trotted a 28.2 last quarter to gain in her initial win as a three-year-old after two earlier third place finishes.

The 1:56.1 mile was a more than a full second off the daughter of Lou’s Legacy previous best winning time for Carrollton, Illinois owners Leo, Craig, and Curt Grummel

Justa Nother Bag, driven by 26-year-old Wyatt Avenatti, was second best, a half-length behind while his older 28-year-old brother Matt guided La Lolita a third-place check.

In her previous start a week ago Marvelous Mystery made a rare break in the Violet stake, fell far behind the field, and made up about 18 lengths to be third.

The co-headliner twelfth race conditioned pace gave Stewart his fifth winning drive on the card when L Dees Jack Lopez held off the fast-closing Showboat Shooting (Juan Franco) and Hidden Assassin (Travis Seekman) in the 1:56 flat mile.

Sensing slow fractions, Cordarius took L Dees Jack Lopez out of fourth on the backside, and the six-year-old pacer brushed to the top before the half-miler pole (:59.2). The Erv Miller trainee got away with a leisurely 29.1 third panel and had enough left in the tank to post his second straight triumph for proprietors Doug Overhiser (Florida) and the Erv Miller stable (Pennsylvania).