Cole Hard Cash rallies for feature win at Batavia Downs

Batavia, NY — Cole Hard Cash needed every inch of the Batavia Downs half-mile track on Saturday night to come from behind and beat Shu Fu by a nose in the featured $8,000 Open II Pace.

Paul White photo

Cole Hard Cash rallied to win the Batavia feature.

Sitting second behind the pacesetting even money favorite Shu Fu (Ray Fisher, Jr.), Cole Hard Cash ($7.00), under the urging of red-hot driver Dan Noble, dropped down into the passing lane and just caught the front-runner in the last stride at the wire. Shu Fu had set fractions of :28.1, :59.2 and 1:28 and stayed strong down the lane thanks to a :31.1 second quarter breather.

But Cole Hard Cash used a :28.4 last quarter to get the job done, tripping the timer in 1:56.4. Le Reina Road (Dave McNeight III) took the show position on a brisk evening that featured snow flurries.

Cole Hard Cash, a 6-year-old Cole Muffler gelding, is owned by Eim Racing of Lackawanna, N.Y. and trained by James Dunn. The victory was the tenth of the season for Cole Hard Cash and the winner has earned $61,091 on the campaign.

Noble had a huge weekend at the Downs, as he had a six-bagger on Friday night and won six more on Saturday.

Jack Flanigen inched closer to a milestone of 4,000 wins, as he currently sits at 3,997.

— Brian Mazurek

Rosecroft
On a cool, windy 37 degree night Bernard Ewing and co-owner/trainer Gary Ewing’s GE’s Alex unleashed the night’s fastest final quarter while closing from last to win the weekly Filly and Mare Winner’s Over in 1:54.3 at Rosecroft. Driver Mark Gray sat patiently through the first three- quarters of the mile (:27.2, 57 and 1:25.2) before simply erupting with pace on the grandstand side and paced over the field for the score via a final quarter of :28.1. Since picking up the catch-drive Gray and GE’s Alex have had two wins and a third in three starts. The win was the tenth of GE’s Alex’s career and vaulted the 8-year-old daughter of Misfit over the $50,000 mark in lifetime earnings. In other Rosecroft action, leading driver Frank Milby had his usual multiple win night, this time scoring two wins. Corey Braden won both halves of the early double and Billy Carter recorded a double by winning with two longshots. Defending leading driver Justin Vincent continued his rally into the leading driver race with a double while Justin’s father, Kim Vincent, had a winner and two seconds, including finishing second with 22-1 longshot Dance Queen in the third race. Not to be overlooked on the 12-race card was the win recorded by driver-trainer Alvin Lineweaver, who won his first race of the meet after several close finishes. Why mention Lineweaver’s win? Alvin is 74 years old and competes on a weekly basis with a small stable at Rosecroft, continuing his tradition of success.

Saratoga
White Mountain Top was coming off back-to-back Open Pace victories at Saratoga Casino and Raceway as he faced his toughest test yet on Saturday night. The Amber Buter trained pacer was dismissed at 11-1 despite winning two consecutives Opens. The standout pacer faced a pair of outsiders who between them had lifetime earnings of more than $2.3 million. Hypnotic Blue Chip (Joe Bongiorno) was the favorite in the $21,000 Open and cut the mile while fellow invader Code Word (Billy Dobson) sat the pocket. White Mountain Top and Stephane Bouchard sat patiently in lap one before making their move, a move that would be the winning one. The 6-year-old came on late to prevail in a speedy 1:53.4 despite cold conditions in Saratoga. Hypnotic Blue Chip ended up second after Code Word was disqualified and placed third for a lapped on break at the wire.