Hamburg, NY — It was a bittersweet victory for Famous Dan ($6.96) on Friday afternoon (May 15) as he captured the $11,500 featured trot at Buffalo Raceway with a length decision over Classic Sunny in 1:59.4 over the fast track.
Friday at Buffalo Raceway. Photo by Barnstormer Images
It was a double-edged sword for Famous Dan. While posting the victory, Famous Dan was claimed out of the race by Franklin Meier for $15,000 with Angelo Nappo now set to do the training. Also, back on April 24, Famous Dan became ‘famous’ as he gave Maria Rice her 1,000th career training win.
It didn’t take long for Famous Dan (David McNeight III) to grab the lead. Posting sensible fractions of :29.0, :58,4 and 1:29.2, Classic Sunny (Wade Tomaszewski) made a late rally to try and snatch the victory away from Famous Dan but that effort came up a length short. Chapter Twelve (Kevin Cummings) took the show check.
Before switching barns, Famous Dan (Dover Dan-Silvia) was owned by Vogel & Wags Nags, LLC, Team Rice Racing and Dr. Michael Miller. It was the third victory in 10 tries for the 7-year-old gelding who was trained by Rice. The triumph pushed his seasonal earnings to $24,110 and to $226,859 lifetime.
In the $11,500 pacing events, Infinity Stone (Brett MacDonald) proved to be much the best with a 4-1/4 length coast to coast victory over I Got The Looks (Dan Yetman) in 1:57.3. He returned $2.58 for the popular win,
The other bracket had Beach Choice ($4.48) rallying to score a 2-1/4 length over Kid From The Bronx in 1:56.0.
Kevin Cummings finished the card with four trips to the winner’s circle while Drew Monti posted three wins and McNeight III and MacDonald a pair each. David Russo and Samuel Smith had training doubles.
Racing will continue on Saturday afternoon with 12 races set for 2:30 p.m. The program will have both the Open Pace and Open Trot being contested for $15,500 each.
For more information including the latest news, upcoming promotions, entries, results and race replays, go to www.buffaloraceway.com