Batavia, NY — After posting five wins at Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Sept. 2), driver Drew Monti won five more races on Thursday (Sept. 3), including a natural hat trick in races 7, 8 and 9, to extend his lead as the top dash driver at the meet.
Monti won with Miss M A K (1:57.2, $7.16), Mighty Santana N (1:56.3, $3.54), Amigo Mio (1:59.1, $25.48), Pro Beach (1:55.2. $4.34), and Miss Rockadali (1:56.4, $5.60). Monti also had three seconds from his 11 starts, giving him a UDR of .606 for the evening.
Monti now has 51 wins for the meet and holds a 21-win lead over the second-place Shawn Gray, who now has 30.
There were three co-featured conditioned races on Thursday, all going for a purse of $8,000.
The lone pace of the three was won by the aforementioned Pro Beach, who went gate to wire in 1:55.2, scoring by 1-3/4 lengths for owner P T Stable and trainer Sheena Cohen.
The first of the two trots went to Bars Open, who Kyle Cummings drove to a come-from-behind, 2-3/4-length victory in 1:58. Bars Open ($6.66) is owned by Leslie Shafer and trained by Tammy Cummings.
The second trot was won by the aforementioned Amigo Mio, who also had to rally for a very close neck victory over Latavius (Leon Bailey) in 1:59.1. Amigo Mio is owned by Carl Monti and trained by Darrin Monti.
Sheena Cohen led all her conditioning peers on Thursday with a training double.
Live racing will resume at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Sept. 5) at 4 p.m. (EDT) and there will be a $1,439 carryover in the Jackpot Hi-5 pentafecta wager in the 11th race.
Batavia Downs has a full slate of promotions during Labor Day weekend with a special “Vets Night” fundraiser including an Italian buffet on Saturday (Sept. 5), and the annual driver/trainer bike race and giveaway and chicken barbeque during the matinee card of racing on Labor Day Monday (Sept. 7). Post time for Saturday is 4 p.m. and post time for the Labor Day matinee is 12:15 p.m.
Free full card past performance programs for every live card of racing at Batavia Downs can always be downloaded at bataviadownsgaming.com under the “Live Racing” tab. And you can watch all the races live as they happen for free on the Batavia Downs YouTube page.