Plainville, MA — It’s safe to say that Shawn Gray stole the show at Plainridge Park on Thursday afternoon (April 25) after winning five of the 11 races carded, including a pair of $12,000 co-featured events for both male and female pacers.

Passport To Art gave Shawn Gray one of five driving wins on Thursday at Plainridge Park. Tom Melanson photo.

In the first featured event, carded for male pacers which have not won six races lifetime, Gray pulled first-over at the half and took the lead with Passport To Art before cutting the remainder of the mile, eventually out-muscling Sometimes Always (Nick Graffam) in deep stretch to win by a neck in a lifetime best 1:52.1.

Passport To Art ($9.40) is owned by Elizabeth and Dyce Spalluto and is trained by Alicia Gray.

Then, in the second split of that same class but for fillies and mares, Gray went to the front right off the gate with Well Said Maria and sped through quarters of :27.3, :56.1 and 1:24.4 before turning it up coming out of the last turn and pacing away to a wrapped-up 6-1/2 length victory in 1:55.3.

The heavily favored Well Said Maria ($2.10) is owned by Scott Dillon. Jimmy Nickerson conditions that winner.

Gray rounded out his personal pentafecta with wins by So So Sweet (1:56.2, $5.60), Wood Hunter (1:54.4, $16.00) and Thrownoutofbetter (1:53.4, $7.00).

On the strength of Thursday’s performance, Gray now has 15 wins at the young Plainridge Park meet and is only one win behind the current dash leading driver Mitchell Cushing, who had two wins on the card Thursday.

Overall, Gray sits in third place in North America among all drivers with 499 or fewer starts to date with a .388 Universal Driver Rating (UDR).

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Friday afternoon (April 26), with post time set for 4 p.m.