Batavia, NY — A pair of $12,500 Opens went to post at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Oct. 25) night with local favorites Crazy Ritz and Livonjaxnqueens chalking up another win for the year.
In the Open Handicap trot, Crazy Ritz (Jim McNeight Jr.) went right to the front and set quarterly fractions of :28.1, :58.2 and 1:27.4 while Dougadougadew (Kyle Cummings) and Valentine Express (Joe Chindano Jr.) followed closely, as the rest of the field had made breaks at this point. Those top three went around the bend and into the stretch where Dougadougadew went inside and Valentine Express went out to form a two-pronged attack against the leader. But the leader, Crazy Ritz, was unfazed as he outlasted the duo and won by a neck in 1:57.3.
It was the fifth win of the year for Crazy Ritz ($14.54) and owner James Palladino. Jeff Martin trains the winner.
Then in the Open Handicap pace, Livonjaxsandqueens (Denny Bucceri) sat fourth as Lip Reader A (Drew Monti) and Villiam (Joe Chindao Jr.) traded leads to the :27.3 quarter, before Villiam finally settled on the point and took the troops to the half in :56.4. As they passed that station an outer flow had formed, led by Deebo Hanover (Kyle Cummings) who was followed by Livonjaxsandqueens. Halfway up the backstretch, Deebo Hanover stalled, forcing Livonjaxsandqueens to go three wide. Livonjaxsandqueens then drew alongside Villiam at three-quarters and the two battled for the remaining two furlongs. As Chindano and Bucceri bounced up and down like their seats were spring loaded, Livonjaxsandqueens continued to incrementally gain ground on Villiam and when they crossed the line, Livonjaxsandqueens had forged to the front by a neck in 1:54.1.
It was the eighth win of the year for Livonjaxsandqueens ($4.12) who is owned by Howard Ouriel and trained by James Rothfuss.
Kyle Cummings and Kyle Swift both had three driving wins, but Swift also added a training tally. However trainers Jeff Martin and Chris Petrelli led all conditioners on Saturday with two wins apiece.
Live racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Oct. 29) with post time at 6:00 p.m.
Free full card past performance programs for every live card of racing at Batavia can always be downloaded at The Downs’ website (bataviadownsgaming.com) under the “Live Racing” tab. Then you can watch all the races live as they happen for free on the Batavia Downs YouTube page.