Batavia, NY – Face The Shadows did all the heavy lifting en route to her win in the featured $10,000 Class A-AA fillies and mares pace at Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Dec. 3) evening.
Face The Shadows (Kevin Cummings) got away fifth as Won Surreal Deal (Kyle Cummings) skated through early fractions of :28.1 and :58.3. It was there that Cummings had Face The Shadows out and moving first-over in the breeze and drew almost even with Won Surreal Deal at three-quarters. Face The Shadows eventually made her way past Won Surreal Deal in the turn and entered the stretch on top by a length, and as the girls made their way to the line, Face The Shadows held off a late challenge from Gia’s Surreal to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:57.3.
It was the third win in the last five starts for Face The Shadows ($4.78), who is owned by El Dorado Stables and Mike Torcello and trained by Sam Smith.
There were some very healthy payouts at Batavia on Wednesday, as longshots made their presence known during the night.
In the second race, Southwind Talisa (2:01.4, Dan Yetman/Frank Mays) won at 32-1 and paid $66.16. Then in the seventh race, D A Magic Mike (2:00, Shawn McDonough/Angelo Nappo) was let go at 69-1 returned $141.70 for the win, and coupled with the 24-1 second placed Four Finger Floyd (Denny Bucceri), produced a $2 exacta that yielded $817.56.
Neither Joe Chindano Jr. nor Kevin Cummings reached their respective milestones on Wednesday, although they both had multiple winners on the card. Chindano had a hat trick between the wheels, pushing his career win mark to 998 and just two shy of the 1,000 plateau, while Cummings had two wins that boosted his lifetime victory total to 4,998 and two shy of 5,000. Both will be back in action at Batavia on Saturday to take another swing at personal history.
Shawn McDonough was the most prolific horseman on the grounds Wednesday night as he accounted for a total of five wins; two driving wins and three training tallies.
Live racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Dec. 6) with post time at 6 p.m. (EST) and there will be two carryovers available. First, there is an $834 carryover in the Pick Five wager in the first race and then a $1,218 carryover in the Jackpot Super Hi-5 pentafecta wager in the 15th race.
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.