by Jim Moran, for Vernon Downs

Vernon, NY — Trainer Arnie Marks and his son, driver Josh Marks, combined to capture both of Saturday night’s (September 1) Open pacing features at Vernon Downs.

You Bet Your Glass won the $8,000 fifth race, the week’s Open-2 contest, in 1:53.4, while newcomer Winfall Nasty lived up to his advanced billing with a 1:51.3 victory in Saturday’s $10,000 eighth event, the week’s Open-1 Handicap.

You Bet Your Glass played “catch-me-if-you-can” in his second tour of Vernon’s seven-eighths-mile oval, and nobody could; so the 4-year-old son of Bettor’s Delight was able to ring up a one length score, his second in a row and fourth this season for the elder Marks and his ownership partner, William Williams, Jr.

Competing as the crowd wagering choice in his Downs debut for owner Ken Jacobs, Winfall Nasty laid back in fifth for all but two-eighths of the night’s next-to-last event, then closed like a gate in the wind during a :27 final quarter to win by 2-1/2 lengths over the pace-setting Noble Senator. It marked the eighth first-place finish in 2007 for the fleet-footed 5-year-old son of Rambaran, a career winner of more than $320,500.

The driving double was a meet-leading 14th for the younger Marks, who enjoys a 65-60 advantage over defending champ Howard Okusko, Jr. after 57 programs in this year’s dash-winning derby.

Okusko’s lone Saturday score came behind the Purple Haze Stable’s pacer Vicar Hall, a 1:54.1 winner in the Jim Croll, Sr. Memorial Trophy Race.

Downs Doings: Trainer Jack Van Dreason, a veteran of all 54 seasons at the Downs, received a second current win from his 4-year-old pacer Bucky B Skipalong after Claude Huckabone, III teamed the gelded son of Oxford Fella to a 1:55.2 tally in Saturday’s opening event…The evening’s seventh race was dedicated to Jim Croll, Sr., a popular, long-time member of the Vernon Downs community who passed away earlier this year…Vernon will complete its Labor Day weekend with a special nine-event live program on Monday that will get underway at 1:15 p.m. Because of the September 3 matinee, there will be no live racing at the Downs on Tuesday (September 4). Live racing will resume at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday (September 6) with a 12-race card that will feature four $10,000 splits in the next-to-last leg of the Kindergarten Classic Series for 2-year-old trotters (two divisions for each sex), a $10,000 distaff Open Pace and a $10,000 Open Handicap Trot…Vernon’s video gaming facility operates from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday, while its daily simulcast sessions begin at 11:00 a.m.