Prakas Breaks Record in Hambletonian Victory

Prakas, driven by Bill O’Donnell, won the $1,272,000 Hambletonian for 3-year-old trotters in straight heats Saturday at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., and set a stakes record in doing it.

O’Donnell also drove Nihilator, a 3-year-old pacer, to a world race record of 1:49 3/5 in winning a $50,000 invitational pace that preceded the second heat of the Hambletonian.

Nihilator missed by only two fifths of a second the fastest mile ever by a harness horse--1:49 1/5 by his sire Niatross in a time trial at the Red Mile in Lexington, Ky. Oct. 1, 1980. The previous race record was 1:50 3/5, set last year by the pacer Coltfortysix at Springfield, Ill., and tied July 19 by Nihilator in winning the Meadowlands Pace.

Prakas, who won the second division of the first heat in 1:55 1/5, came back to win the second heat in 1:54 3/5 to set the record and win the Hambletonian.

The old Hambletonian record was 1:55, set by winner Speedy Somolli in the first heat of the 1978 race at Du Quoin, Ill., and equaled by Florida Pro in the second heat that year.

The winner of the first division of the first heat was Torway in 1:55 2/5, but Torway, driven by Howard Beissinger, who was seeking a record-equaling fourth Hambletonian victory, was never in contention in the second heat.

If a trotter other than Prakas or Torway had won the second heat, a three-horse race-off would have been needed. The first five finishers in each of the two divisions of the first heat returned for the second heat.