Berlin, MD — Driver Ray Robinson Jr., no stranger to Ocean Downs winner circle, was at it last night winning three races.

He captured the first race with Elvis Blue Chip ($13.40), the fourth with Metropole ($3.40), and the feature race of the evening, the $6,300 conditioned pace for Maryland bred horses, with Whose Bright Idea.

Whose Bright Idea is trained by Alfredo Collazo and owned by James Patrick Davis of Columbia, Maryland. He stopped the tele-timer in 1.57 as the second favorite in the eighth race.

“It is about the quality of the horse that makes the driver.” said Ray Robinson. “I’ve been doing this for 24 years and hopefully I will do it for the next 24 years.”

— Nick Pappas

Vernon Downs
Stephen Farrell, Jr.’s Fox Valley Sage went from last to first during Thursday night’s $10,000 featured ninth race at Vernon Downs. Trainer Ralph Andersen did the driving in the week’s Open for female pacers as Fox Valley Sage ($20.80) started out in eighth place, advanced to sixth at the half, third entering the final furlong, and then powered through the stretch (a :27.2 final panel over a “good” track) to defeat the pace-setting Eagle Hilarious by a head in 1:53.3. It was the third season’s score (second at the Downs) and 24th lifetime victory for the 7-year-old daughter of Richess Hanover-Pink Cadillac, who increased her lifetime winnings to more than $266,000.