by harness racing publicists across North America
The Thursday (July 28) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Scarborough Downs, Vernon Downs and Saratoga.
Sire Stakes success continues for Switzer
Scarborough, MA— The Kevin Switzer roster remained sizzling on Thursday (July 28)) as his state-bred band of youngsters continued it’s dominating ways in Maine Sire Stakes action.
The freshman colt pacing division was the latest to be swept by Switzer’s rising tide as his stable convincingly grabbed top honors in both of the $9,524 stakes splits on the twilight card as Bilt For Desire broke his maiden on Thursday timed in a brisk 1:58.4 while his stablemate, Prince Of The Forest, won his third consecutive sire stakes start-all with Kevin Switzer, Jr. in the sulky.
What a great day for this amazing father and son team at the Downs.
Scarborough Downs features live harness racing with twilight cards on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with post time at 4:30 p.m. (EDT). The Sunday matinees get underway at 1:30 p.m.
For more information, visit www.ScarboroughDowns.com or our Facebook page.
—by Michael Sweeney
Vernon Downs
Connie Hochstetler’s Southern Girl ($5.90) battled resolutely to capture Thursday (July 28) evening’s $5,500 featured Miracle Mile event for distaff pacers at Vernon Downs, digging deep once headed off the far turn en route to a 1:51.4 victory. Fern Paquet, Jr. cleared to the lead with the 4-year-old Sportsmaster mare in the opening stages, out-sprinting Love You Bye (Jimmy Whittemore) through a :27.2 first quarter before relaxing the pace just a bit up the backstretch. Southern Girl was forced to accelerate on the far turn by the first-over The Filly Princess (Truman Gale)–the two dueled through a :27.1 third quarter with The Filly Princess working a head in front on approach to the home straight. Southern Girl responded in kind, forcefully repelling The Filly Princess in upper stretch and holding clear of a stand-side push from Jinxy’s Delight (John MacDonald) by 1-1/2 lengths. The Filly Princess faded to third. Homer Hochstetler trains Southern Girl, who scored her fifth win on the season and the tenth of her career. Live racing returns to Vernon Downs on Friday (July 29) evening, with the first of nine races due off at 6:45 p.m. Eastern.
Saratoga
Nono Lindy (Crazed) always seems to do his best work when he comes to Saratoga Casino Hotel and the Tony Mondi-trained trotter continued that trend on Thursday night when he prevailed in the evening’s feature. Nono Lindy moved out to the early lead in the $9,950 feature for New York sired trotters and after the race’s odds-on favorite made a break was faced with a big challenge from longshot HZ Royalty (Jimmy Devaux) who came first over. The two NY breds battled it out throughout the second half of the mile but Nono Lindy would not be denied and stopped the timer in 1:58.2 for his second win of the season. Frank Coppola Jr. piloted the 3-year-old trotter who returned $8.50 to win. HZ Royalty held strong for second while fellow longshot Luck Of Macrea (Wally Hennessey) came on for third. The exacta paid $154.50 while the race’s triple came back $573 with the favorite out of it. Nono Lindy has recorded both of his 2016 victories at Saratoga and has a second place finish in his other start at the Spa this year. Live racing continues on Friday night at Saratoga with first post time set for 7:05 p.m.