by Matt Zuccarello, GSY Series Reporter

East Rutherford, NJ — As the Friday (July 15) night GSY Series wound down, another familiar face found themselves in the winner’s circle.

In a similar scenario to the previous week, Robert Hechkoff, aboard Keystone Thomas found the front end from gate-to-wire en route to another victory in this amateur event. For the second straight week, he carved out blazing fractions on the front end but unlike last week, he was able to hold off the hard-charging Carnegie, with John Calabrese in the sulky. They finished first and second again for the second straight week.

After a few breakers during the first two quarters, Hechkoff set sail under robust fractions of :27.2 and a half-mile timed in :55.2. He never let up on the engine and held on to a half-length victory. Dream Rocker, with Joe Lee at the reins, was a hard-closing third.

If last week’s time wasn’t fast enough, this week blew that away by three-fifths of a second and this most likely was the fastest amateur race ever (at least for a trotting event), that was timed in 1:53.4.

Keystone Thomas, a 10-year-old gelded son by Revenue S, is owned by R.B.H Ventures Inc. and Kyle Spagnola and is trained by Spagnola.

Next Friday (July 22) the GSY Series Amateur Series will be back racing as the Big M season draws to a close. There will be lots of fast-paced racing on another exciting card. First post is at 7:15 p.m.