by Brian J. Mazurek, for Buffalo Raceway

Hamburg, NY — BZ Glide ($4.00) tied the all-time trotting record in Buffalo Raceway’s $11,500 Open Trot on Friday night (June 29) and broke the older gelding mark as well with a brilliant gate-to-wire 1:56.1 mile. It was also a lifetime mark for the 9-year-old gelded BZ Glide whose previous career best was 1:56.3.

Steve Roth photo

BZ Glide equaled the all-time trot record with a 1:56.1 mile at Buffalo Raceway.

The all-time standard equaled by BZ Glide will be shared with Gural Hanover and Chelseas Chance who each went 1:56.1 in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Ironically, Chelseas Chance finished second, two lengths behind BZ Glide on Friday. The older gelding record was 1:56.2 established by Lutetium in 2014 and equaled by Kahoku in 2016.

While BZ Glide gets the credit for the record-tying race, driver Mike Caprio said the change of bikes made a huge difference.

“The bike I was using was like 20 years old so I bought the one I am using now from Jim Morrill Jr. I adjusted the seat and foot pegs and BZ Glide was a lot more comfortable with it.”

BZ Glide was ready to go at the start and immediately fired out to the lead. Posting fractions of :28.2, :57.4 and 1:27.2, it appeared Barn Winner might be the main threat down the stretch but that attempt fizzled out. Chelseas Chance (Bobby Verney) skimmed the rail for second while Barn Winner (Ray Fisher Jr.) held on for third.

Owned by the Caprio Stable and trained by Alana Caprio, it was the second win in seven starts in 2018 for BZ Glide (Yankee Glide-Bloomer Zoomer). The victory pushed his seasonal earnings to $20,930 and $276,932 lifetime.

Ray Fisher Jr. and Kevin Cummings had doubles in the sulky while Verney and Marc Shuttleworth had two training victories.

Racing will continue on Saturday night with 10 races scheduled for a 6 p.m. post. For more information including the latest news, upcoming promotions, simulcast schedule, race replays, results and entries, go to www.buffaloraceway.com.