Batavia, NY — When Kevin Cummings won with Tymal Envoy (1:58, $5.08) in the ninth race at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Dec. 6) night, he registered the 5,000th win of his illustrious 36 year career.
Cummings comes from a family steeped in harness racing lineage. His father John Cummings Sr. and brothers John Cummings Jr., Tony Cummings and Todd Cummings all trained and drove at Batavia Downs going back to 1979, with the brothers getting a hands-on education from their father at an early age.
After starting to drive at age 19 in 1989, Cummings developed into a stellar reinsman who has been near the top of the leaderboard almost every year ever since. And throughout his career, Cummings has been a high demand driver and as a result, has won a slew of driving titles in western New York including five at Batavia Downs since the Racino era began in 2005. He has also finished second five times at The Downs during that same time period.
Cummings is not only a desired driver by local trainers, he also draws some of the best visiting horses during stake season when the New York Sire Stakes are in town. Plus he’s had the privilege of sitting behind the great $7 million dollar man, Foiled Again, in 2016 when they won the Downs’ signature event, the Robert J. Kane Memorial Pace in 1:52.2. Cummings also won the 2006 Kane with Michael Scores in 1:52.1.
In 2021 when Cummings hit the 4,000 win mark, he reflected by saying “It means a lot, it’s a good milestone and I’d like to get to 5,000. But I don’t know if that will happen.” Well it only took four years to get there and at only 55-years of age now, 6,000 appears to be a very achievable goal for the savvy driving veteran.
Cummings’ career numbers now show 5,001 wins from 28,742 starts, including 4,676 seconds and 4,223 thirds, giving him a lifetime UDR of .313 and earnings of just under $27 million.
At the current Batavia Downs meet, Cummings now sits second for dash wins with 80, along with 80 seconds and 68 thirds which have earned him over $640,000 in purses.
Drew Monti wins six, Sam Smith wins five during huge night for both
Batavia Downs’ leading driver, Drew Monti, was on top of his game Saturday as he won six races on the card to extend his lead in the dash title. Monti won with Brushing Up (1:57.4, $23.88), Rock Me Always (1:55.3, $4.28), Somebodyitreasure (1:55.2, $2.84), Treasured Tee (1:59, $2.78), Soul Assassin (1:56.2, $7.56) and Kb’ssweetcaroline (1:58, $4.96).
The five wins push Monti to 105 wins for the current Batavia meet, which is 25 ahead of his nearest competitor Kevin Cummings, who sits in second with 80. Joe Chindano Jr. is third only one back of Cummings with 79 tallies.
The Downs’ leading trainer by a small margin coming into Saturday is Sam Smith, but he extended his lead substantially after posting five wins on the program. Smith’s victorious trainees include the aforementioned Brushing Up, Rock Me Always, Somebodyitreasure and Kb’ssweetcaroline who were all driven by Monti, along with Tymal Envoy, who provided Cummings with his monumental victory.
Smith now has 59 wins and is seven ahead of Shawn McDonough (52) with only four cards of racing remaining.
Livonjaxandqueens, Dougadougadew take twin $12,500 features
There were two $12,500 feature races on Saturday – one on the pace and one on the trot – and both winners were off-time favorites who scored from off the pace.
First in the Open pace, Flag Party (Joe Chindano Jr.) set a :57.4 pace to the half where Livonjaxandqueens (Denny Bucceri) pulled first-over and came within a length of the leader at three-quarters in 1:25.2. Flag Party and Livonjaxandqueens paced side by side around the last turn but when they entered the stretch, Livonjaxandqueens started to dart away and eventually won by 1-½ lengths in 1:55.
It was the 10th win of the year for the heavily-backed Livonjaxandqueens ($3.72) who is owned by Howard Ouriel and trained by Jim Rothfuss.
Then in the Open trot, El Toro Loco (Kevin Cummings) cut fractions of :28.4, :59.2 and 1:28.4 while Dougadougadew (Kyle Cummings) drafted third along the cones behind Gone Crazee (Drew Monti). But at the top of the stretch, Gone Crazee made a break, opening room for Dougadougadew to chugga-chugga-through the passing lane where he turned a 2-½ length deficit into a 1-½ length win in 1:58.4.
It was the third score of the year for Dougadougadew ($4.76) who is owned by Doug and Tyra Ackley and trained by Tammy Cummings.
Live racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Dec. 10) at a new, earlier post time of 5:00 p.m., which will be in effect for all race days now through the end of the meet.
On Wednesday there will be a carryover of $1,590 available in the Jackpot Super Hi-5 pentafecta wager in the 13th 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.