by John Berry, for Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — Cashahallic, knocking at the door in this top class the last two weeks, finally broke that door down on Monday night (Nov. 23) and won the $10,000 Open Trot at Pompano Park in 1:55.

Skip Smith photo

Cashahallic took top honors in Pompano Park’s $10,000 Open Trot on Monday night, covering the mile in 1:55.

The 7-year-old altered son of Cash Hall, owned and trained by Richard Silverman, got a picture perfect drive from Aaron Byron as he made a quarter move to the top and led the rest of the journey, pinning a 1-1/2 length defeat on Pounce Hanover (Ed Hensley) with Uriel (Kevin Wallis) another nose back in third. She’s All In and I’ll Tell You What picked up the minors in the septet.

As the gate sprung, Pounce Hanover left with alacrity along with Cashahallic with Count Speed into the fray early, only to lose his composure at the opening marker in :28.1. Shortly after, Byron sent Cashahallic pouncing to the front himself and clocked fractions of :57.2 and 1:25.4, feeling only minimal pressure from Uriel around the final bend. In the lane, Cashahallic was never in danger, strutting home a handy winner in 1:55.

In a post-race interview, driver Byron said, “This horse has been giving hints the last couple of starts and I thought I’d try him on the front end this week since he won that way a few starts ago. He’s handy so he brushed to the top easily and that was that.”

For Cashahallic, it was his sixth success of the year in 30 starts, pushing his seasonal bounty to $57,773. He’s banked $284,820 lifetime to go along with his Meadowlands mark of 1:54. As the 4-5 tote board favorite, Cashahallic paid $3.80 to his many backers.