Plainville, MA — There is no hotter set of hands currently racing in New England than those of Mitchell Cushing and he continued to pile-on numbers to his career year by winning five more races at Plainridge Park on Monday afternoon (Nov. 19).

Betterlatethnnever scored a victory in the $16,000 feature at Plainridge. Tom Melanson Photo.

The most notable victory in Cushing’s day came in the marquee event; the $16,000 Winners-Over pace where Betterlatethnnever flashed his class once again. After leaving like a runner, Betterlatethnnever stacked up four horses three-deep at the three-quarters before shifting gears to pull away to a three-length win in 1:53.2.

It was the ninth win in only 12 starts this year and the seventh win in the last eight starts for Betterlatethnnever ($4.20) who now sports $55,105 in earnings for 2018. David Glazer owns and Jimmy Nickerson trains.

Then in the $14,000 conditioned event for pacers under 6-years-old, Cushing scored with Lear Hanover who followed Bowedfortyova (Drew Campbell) to the top of the stretch, where he pulled and out-muscled Ramblin Art (Nick Graffam) to the wire in 1:53.1.

It was the eighth win of the season for Lear Hanover ($4.00) who is also owned and trained by Glazer and Nickerson.

Cushing rounded out the five-bagger with Flash Lauxmont (1:53.3, $3.80), Lucky Sport (1:54, $4.80) and See Me Streakin (1:54.4, $5.00).

Nickerson trains Lucky Sport as well and that gave him the conditioning Hat Trick Monday.

Mitchell Cushing has posted gaudy numbers this year. Out of his 1,066 starts he’s won 235 races, finished second another 160 and third 162 times. He’s earned just under $1.4 million to date with a sparkling Universal Driver Rating (UDR) of .354.

At the current Plainridge Park meet Cushing is in second place for wins with 131, has a UDR of .362 and earnings of $1.01 million. He sits behind Drew Campbell (155) in the victory category as Campbell has held that top spot for most of the year.

Cushing plans to change his driving venue to the Meadowlands after the Plainridge Park meet ends next week which is the same track he started out the best year of his career back in January.

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 20) at 1 p.m. With no winner again in the Wicked Hi-5 Pentafecta in the last race on Monday, there will be a $5,265 carryover pool for the Wicked Hi-5 bet in the final race on Tuesday. Post time for the 10th race will be approximately 4 p.m.