Plainville, MA — After having an early lead, Pepper Wow had to make a late rush to grab his fourth victory of the year in the $24,000 Open Handicap trot at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Sept. 3).
Amid several leavers, Pepper Wow (driven by Mitchell Cushing) was first to the front and tripped the timer in :27 flat at the quarter. But fellow leaver Platinum As (Brett Beckwith), kept pushing and made the front as they passed the stands and continued on to the half in :55.4. As the race moved up the backstretch, Spaaaanzano (Bruce Ranger) made an outside push and got to second on the outside of Platinum As, just ahead of Pepper Wow, who was now locked in.
Positions remained unchanged around the last turn until the top of the stretch where Spaaaanzano took the lead from Platinum As and Pepper Wow and Makeorbreakzaz S (Larry Stalbaum) moved to the center of the track and were flying, while Kazio DK (Kyle Swift) found room along the inside. With a mad dash to the line, Pepper Wow did the better work and got the win by a half-length in 1:52.4.
Pepper Wow is owned by Kathy and Earl Beaman, in partnership with Ivan Davies, who also trains the winner. He paid $5.20 to win.
For the second racing day in a row at Plainridge, driver Brett Beckwith won five races, including a natural hat trick in races 3, 4 and 5. Beckwith scored with Jeffrey Neil (1:54.1, $3), Slick Leonard (1:57.2, $3.80), Kingmaker (1:55.3, $4), Creative Venture (1:54.3, $5) and Malibu Kid (1:54.1, $11.60). Beckwith also had three seconds from his 11 starts, giving him a stout .606 UDR.
Domenico Cecere had two training wins on Thursday (Jeffrey Neil and Kingmaker), both of which were driven by Beckwith.
Racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday (Sept. 7) at 2 p.m. (EDT).
Free full card past performance programs for every live card of racing at Plainridge Park can always be downloaded at plainridgeparkcasino.com under the “Racing” tab. You can also watch all the race replays on that same page.