Hamburg, NY – Fashion Hill took advantage of an unusual circumstance and it ended up helping her shatter the Buffalo Raceway 2-year-old filly pacing track record with a 1:55.3 victory in the first $54,000 division of the New York Sire Stakes on Wednesday night (July 3). She crushed the old standard of 1:56.2 established in 2016 by She’s A Billionair.

Winning driver Tyler Buter said of the unique trip with Fashion Hill, “Kevin’s (Cummings) horse (Sugaronthebeach) kept hitting her foot on the bike and the noise scared mine that she wanted to go a thousand miles an hour. She (Sugaronthebeach) finally stopped hitting it around the half-mile pole and my horse then settled down.”

Fashion Hill and Tyler Buter were the best Wednesday at Buffalo in NYSS action. Steve Roth Photo. 

Racing right to the lead, Fashion Hill set the blazing fractions of :29, :57.1 and 1:26.4. It appeared that So Rude (Matt Kakaley) and The Fun Marshall (Billy Davis Jr.) were going to take shots at the leader down the stretch but Fashion Hill never looked back in posting the 1-1/4 length victory. So Rude took the place position and The Fun Marshall was third.

“She had a lot left at the end of the race,” Buter said of Fashion Hill (American Ideal-Taxi Fare Hanover). “I wasn’t worried about a track record, I was concerned in getting her around the track.” He added, “I want to thank the connections (trainer Chris Oakes) and the owner (Tom Hill) for the opportunity.

In the NYSS second division, Cummings used the home track advantage to guide Racine Bell ($8.50) to a nose 1:57.1 victory over Galleria Gal (Buter). Rare Jimstone (Morrill Jr.) was third.

“It’s a tough track to get around but having the knowledge racing here helps,” Cummings said. “It looked like she (Racine Bell) could get around a half-mile track pretty well. After looking at her last race at Monticello, I wanted to get her to the lead.”

Racine Bell and Kevin Cummings took the second division of the NYSS in Buffalo Wednesday. Steve Roth photo. 

Scoring from the six post, Racine Bell (So Surreal-Ty’s Artist) got to the top and showed the way with splits of :29.2, :59.3 and 1:29. Galleria Gal made a sustained charge in the lane but came up just a nose short.

“She dug in and showed a lot of guts late,” Cummings said of Racine Bell.

Owned by Chris and Dale Lawton and trained by David Dewhurst, it was the second win in three career appearances for Racine Belle. The victory upped her seasonal earnings to $35,125.

In the lone $15,000 Excelsior A Series, Twin B Salsa (Cummings) covered the mile in 1:59 and returned $7.50 to her backers.

There was a $6,300 event in the Excelsior B Series with Twin B Infinity (Kakaley) taking the non-betting affair in 2:03.3. The win gave trainer Blake MacIntosh a sweep of the Excelsior races.

Cummings, Davis Jr. and Morrill Jr. each had driving doubles with Maria Rice and James Clouser Jr. collecting a pair of training wins apiece.