Hamburg, NY — Do Mischief ($3.10) proved to be all kinds of trouble in Buffalo Raceway’s $14,700 Open Pace on Saturday afternoon (July 4) as he broke the heart of Total Stranger in the final strides in registering a head victory in 1:53.0 over the fast track.
Total Stranger (Kevin Cummings) would set the fractions of :27.3, :55.2 and 1:24.2 as Do Mischief (Brett MacDonald cruised along patiently in the pocket. The pair broke away as a tandem heading around the final turn as the others dropped out of contention.
In the stretch, Total Stranger tried desperately to hang onto the lead but Do Mischief continued to grind and was able to make one last gasp effort to stick a head in front at the wire. Shoobee Doo A (Ray Fisher Jr.) was able to pick up the third place award.
Co-owned by Caeleo Enterprises and Brad Conschafter, Do Mischief (Sweet Lou-Somesleazetoplease) is trained by David Russo. The victory was the sixth in 22 attempts on the season for Do Mischief, now a winner of $48,068 on the year and $141,760 lifetime.
In the $14,700 Open Trot, the favored Crazy Ritz ($4.12) took advantage of the inside draw and topped El Toro Loco by three quarters of a length in 1:56.2 with Dougadougadew Kyle Cummings) finishing in third.
El Toro Loco (Kevin Cummings) briefly took the lead but Crazy Ritz wanted no part of the pocket trip and quickly zipped back to the top.
With fractions of :28.3, :58.1 and 1:27.2 in the books, Crazy Ritz said ‘catch me if you can’ down the stretch but the pocket sitting El Toro Loco had no response.
Owned by James Palladino and conditioned by Samuel Dilcher, it was the fourth win in 15 tries on the campaign for Crazy Ritz (Crazy Wow-Bubblenritz). The victory jumped his 2026 bankroll to $53,461 and to $291,403 in his career.
MacDonald and Kevin Cummings each had driving triples on the holiday card with Monti and David McNeight III get two each. Russo and Dilcher each posted training doubles.
There’s plenty of stakes action scheduled on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. when racing returns with a 15-race program. The first 10 events will feature either New York Sire Stakes action or Excelsior Series races for both the 2-year-old pacing fillies and colts and geldings.
For more information including the latest news, upcoming promotions, entries, results and race replays, go to www.buffaloraceway.com