Author: by Rachel Oenema, for Dayton Raceway

An outstanding night at the office for driver Chris Page as the reinsman scored six driving wins on the Friday, (Nov. 17) card of racing at Dayton Raceway.

Princesa Alta (Sweet Lou – Camille) and driver Marc St. Louis, Jr. took a jaunt up the lightning lane and held off a fast-closing Artistic Cut (Artspeak – Paper Cut) in capturing the $9,500 Open Pace for mares in 1:58.0 Friday (Nov. 17) night at Northville Downs.

The rainy weather seemed to have no restraint on Smoking Jet and Penpaperpaige, who were both Friday (Nov. 17) night Open Pace winners at Dayton Raceway.

The full field of 3-year-olds that went postward in the $17,500 feature race at Plainridge Park on Friday (Nov. 17) was so good, it yielded two winners. Better Option (Jay Randall) and the aptly named Finally Friday (Nick Graffam) finished in a dead heat as four horses hit the line in unison.

When Bruce Ranger finished second with Milliondollarwall in the fifth race at Plainridge Park on Monday afternoon (Nov. 13) he pushed his driving earnings across the $2 million dollar mark for the 2023 meet with nine race days left on the schedule. This is the second time Ranger has achieved that status — having earned $2,009,011 in 2021 — and is the only driver in Plainridge history to achieve that goal. Ranger just missed doing it three years in a row after coming up only $3,013 shy in 2022 ($1,996,897).

Going Platinum ($2.80) became the only two-time winner in the Delaware Standardbred Breeders’ Fund (DSBF) series for 2-year-old trotting fillies at Bally’s Dover with a 2:00.2 win in the first of three $20,000 second-round divisions, held Monday (Nov. 13). Daburg, the overwhelming 1-9 favorite in the third division, tasted defeat for just the second time in her six-start career after giving way to Platinum Proposal with three-sixteenths to go.

After finishing second to Going Platinum in last month’s Delaware Standardbred Breeders’ Fund series final at Harrington Raceway, Daburg got back to her winning ways on Monday (Nov. 6) at Bally’s Dover, kicking off the Dover DSBF series with a commanding 1:59.1 win in the first of three $20,000 opening-round preliminary divisions for 2-year-old trotting fillies.

Here is this week’s Meadows Monday Memo. 

Bruce Ranger brought his “A” game to Plainridge Park on Monday (Nov. 6) and won four of the seven races he was scheduled to drive while also finishing second twice and third once in the other three.