Plainville, MA — Betterlatethnnever put in a strong front-end effort to capture his second straight win after taking the $14,000 Winners-Over Handicap Pace at Plainridge Park on Monday afternoon (Aug. 26).

It was a four-horse, four-wide dash off the gate for the lead, with Major Leaguer (Jimmy Whittemore), Betterlatethnnever (Jay Randall), Tisadream N (Drew Monti) and Mach Doro A (Ron Cushing) all arguing for control. Still stacked up at the :26.4 quarter, Betterlatethnnever took over from Major Leaguer past that pole and settled on top. Tisadream N was now parked in the breeze with Mach Doro A on his back, pushing the issue to the half in :55.

Betterlatethnnever took a new seasonal mark in Monday’s featured pace at Plainridge Park. Tom Melanson photo.

Moving up the backstretch, Mach Doro A pulled three-deep around Tisadream N and drew alongside Betterlatethnnever for a few strides before being quickly rebuffed by him. Then Betterlatethnnever rolled around the last turn and opened up a two-length lead heading into the stretch. Major Leaguer came off the pylons to try and chase, as did Captain Deo (Nick Graffam), but Betterlatethnnever proved the better horse and won in 1:50.3, which was a new seasonal mark.

The ninth win of the year for Betterlatethnnever ($22.80) pushed his 2019 earnings to $83,952 for owners Nickerson Racing and David Glazer. Jimmy Nickerson is the trainer.

In a $12,000 upper-level condition pace, JK Will Power (Drew Monti) took full advantage of a class drop to score his sixth win of the year. JK Will Power pulled first over past the quarter and lived on the outside from there, eventually wearing down the leading Gillys Boy (Kevin Switzer Jr.) in mid-stretch to win by 1-1/4 lengths in 1:51. The time was a new seasonal mark.

JK Will Power ($11.40) is owned by Michael Goldberg Racing and is trained by Jeff Lieberman.

Plainridge Park’s special series for 2-year-old pacers, the Nauset Light, ran its second $10,000 leg on Monday, and the winner’s time replaced a longtime standard at Plainridge.

Han Solo (Kevin Switzer Jr.) left from post four and never looked back. After cutting quarters of :28, :57 and 1:25.4, Switzer kept his horse game to the wire, holding off a fast-closing Sweet Lucille (Drew Monti) to win by a neck in 1:54.1.

The winning time of 1:54.1 registered by the Massachusetts-bred Han Solo (Mister Big-Leah) was a new track record, replacing the 15-year-old standard of 1:54.4 set by Marced Card back in 2004.

Han Solo ($4.60) is owned and trained by breeder Monique Cohen. The colt is also eligible to the $1.8 million (est.) Massachusetts Sires Stakes, which gets underway on Sept. 29 and runs through Oct. 28 at Plainridge Park.

Drew Campbell and Drew Monti each had two driving wins on the card, while Jeff Lieberman led all trainers with two wins as well.

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Aug. 29) with post time at 4 p.m.