from Harness Publicists across North America

Sunday’s (June 21) edition of Racing Roundup features a results story from Ocean Downs.

Gray posts driving triple at Ocean Downs

Berlin, MD — Father’s Day at the Ocean Oval proved to be a special night for Mark Gray as he took home a driving triple.

Gray won the second race of the evening behind Cotton Blossom ($5.00). He also drove the 5-year-old mare to a victory last week.

“I got her last fall at Colonial. Some of my buddies gave her to me and said that she was feisty,” Gray clarified. “She’s very new to racing even though she is 5-years-old. I will be driving her in the series race on Thursday, we’ll se how she does there.”

Suffern’s Z Tam (2.40) pulled Gray to his second win. The 7-year-old gelding was the favorite in the sixth race at 2-1 odds.

“The horse usually runs against very good competition. He was supposed to win so I wasn’t surprised,” Gray added.

Gray finished his three-win feat in the last race of the evening when he crossed the wire first with Take The Lead ($7.40).

He currently sits atop the driving title race with seven wins.

Not far behind Gray in the title chase is Chuck Perry, Jr. with six wins on the season so far. Two of those wins came by way of a driving double on Sunday night. Perry drove 3-year-old Onedayatatime ($2.80) to a win in the filly’s second race ever. His next win came behind Pink Sweater ($5.40), a 4-year-old mare.

In the ninth race of the evening, driver Donnie Long captured the feature race. Miss Valley Victor ($28.20) pulled him ahead of the pack and never relented the lead.

“I have never driven the mare before, but I felt that she wanted to go, so I let her and she ran away with it,” commented Long.

— Ozi Menakaya