from harness publicists across North America

Friday’s (July 31) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Vernon Downs, Batavia Downs and Saratoga Casino and Raceway.

Express Jet soars in Vernon distaff feature

Vernon, NY — After taking charge off the clubhouse turn, Express Jet ($7.90) controlled the terms and held off a late charge from Love You Bye to take Friday evening’s $7,000 upper-level conditioned distaff pace at Vernon Downs.

Fotowon photo

Express Jet accelerated clear of her six rivals in Friday evening’s $7,000 featured distaff pace at Vernon Downs.

Trainer-driver John MacDonald secured the pocket with Express Jet in the early stages of the race, tightening in behind Aritzia Hanover (Truman Gale) through a :27 first quarter.

Soon after, the 6-year-old Jereme’s Jet mare took charge, pulling the tempo back through a :59.4 middle half. At the top of the stretch, Express Jet accelerated clear, leaving Aritzia Hanover well in her wake. Love You Bye (Jimmy Whittemore) found room in upper stretch to make a late push forward, but Express Jet held sway by 1-1/2 lengths to prevail in 1:54.3. Love You Bye was a strongly-closing second, while Asset Management (Fern Paquet Jr.) kicked stalled cover and rallied stoutly to take third.

The J P Stables and Crawford Partners, LLC own Express Jet.

Live racing returns to Vernon Downs on Saturday (Aug. 1) evening, with post time at 6:45 p.m. (EDT).

— James Witherite

Batavia Downs
More spectacular weather greeted a full house of fans at Batavia Downs on Friday night and the faithful were treated to extraordinary performances by both man and beast. The man was 20-year-old Drew Monti, who put on a driving clinic by scoring five victories on the card. He won with Feets Of Magic ($4.00), I’m The Cash Man ($15.80), Ooga Booga ($7.80), Greg’s Girl ($10.40) and Big Baller ($5.70). But winning wasn’t the whole story. Monti had a total of eight drives and never missed the board. Besides the already mentioned victories, he had two seconds and a third which gave him an amazing UDR of .805 for the program. The beast was definitely Lutetium (Kevin Cummings) who regained old form and put forth a monstrous effort in winning the Friday night feature, the $10,000 Open Trot. Leaving with the car when the race began, Lutetium was on top before track announcer Joe Zambito could articulate it. He then took his followers through fractions of :28.2, :57 and 1:26.2 before trotting away from the group by three lengths in 1:56. That time was one-fifth off the track record for older trotting geldings, which Lutetium co-holds with Second Hand News. The effort was so dominant that no other horse in the race got close enough to make a bid. It was the fifth win in 19 starts this year for Lutetium and it raised his annual income to $38,581 for owner Colleen Girdlestone. Mark Laidlaw trains the altered son of Credit Winner who paid $7.40. Other notable performances included Downs defending driving champion Kevin Cummings scoring a hat trick and trainer Darrin Monti who also registered three winners on the card. Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Saturday night with post time set at 6:35 p.m.

Saratoga Casino and Raceway
Super Soph (Admirals Galley) parlayed the pocket ride to victory in the $15,000 Winners Over for distaff pacers on Friday night at Saratoga Casino and Raceway. The Jackie Rousse trainee had post position eight in each of her two previous starts heading into this week’s feature but charged hard off the gate from post four on Friday with Frank Coppola Jr. in the sulky. Super Soph sat the pocket behind the race’s favorite Godiva Seelster (Wally Hennessey) and surged up the passing lane to record the win in 1:53.2. Dismissed at odds of 11-1, the 5-year-old mare won for the fourth time this year, moving her career earnings to over the $250,000 mark in the process. Godiva Seelster was the runner-up and has now finished first or second in 15 of her 16 seasonal starts. Cloris Hanover (Billy Dobson) earned the show spot. Super Soph, who returned $24.00 to win, led an exacta and triple that paid $42.80 and $114, respectively. Live racing continues at Saratoga on Saturday night with a first post time set for 7:05 p.m.