from harness publicists across North America

Friday’s (April 4) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from The Meadows, Buffalo Raceway, Miami Valley Raceway and Saratoga Casino and Raceway.

Southern Allie repeats at The Meadows with powerful uncovered move

Washington, PA — Last at the half and facing a tough journey in the slop, Southern Allie unleashed a relentless first-over move to capture his second straight victory — and fourth in his last five races — in Friday’s $18,000 Winners Over $10,000 Life/Preferred Handicap Pace at The Meadows.

Southern Allie trailed by 7-1/2 lengths when Eric Ledford sent him after the leader, Dedi’s Dragon, who was making his first start of 2013. He needed every bit of stretch to do it, but Southern Allie nailed Dedi’s Dragon by a nose in 1:54, with early leader Brooklyn Flight a close-up third.

Randy Bendis trains Southern Allie, a 7-year-old Allie’s Western-Pershing Angela gelding who now boasts $688,019 in career earnings, and owns with Tom Pollack, Jack Piatt II and R. Lewis Hauber.

Dave Palone drove four winners and Aaron Merriman three on the 14-race card while Tyler Stillings collected training and driving doubles.

— Evan Pattak

Buffalo Raceway
A sloppy track and a race surface that favored front runners. That was the perfect recipe once again for Lutetium as he scored his third straight convincing victory in winning the $10,500 Open Trot at Buffalo Raceway Friday night. The front-running and off-track loving Lutetium ($2.80) bolted right to the top at the start of the race and played catch me if you can with the rest of the field. After posting fractions of :29, 1:01.1 and 1:31.2, the race to the wire wasn’t a matter of who was going to win but by how much. Lutetium (Kevin Cummings) enjoyed a six length edge at the top of the stretch as the rest of the field threw in the towel. He was throttled down by mid-stretch as Heartsaregonnaroll (Jim McNeight) was a distant second and Studio City (Aaron Byron) third. The margin of victory for Lutetium (Credit Winner-Luby) was 3-1/4 lengths after splashing and dashing to a winning time of 2:01.4. It was the third win in eight appearances this season for Lutetium, who is owned by Colleen Girdlestone and trained by Mark Laidlaw. The win pushed the 7-year-old gelding’s bankroll to $18,585 in 2014 and $204,291 lifetime.

Miami Valley Raceway
Despite the fact he was making his first money start in more than four months, Southwind Pepino was impressive Friday night, fighting fierce wind gusts and six creditable rivals to capture the $9,000 Open Trot at Miami Valley Raceway. A winner of eight races and $165,000 last year, the handsome 6-year-old son of Chocolatier had just a mediocre qualifier under his belt before this initial triumph of 2014. Content to drop in fourth from an assigned outside post position, driver Hugh Beatty, Jr. moved into the second-over position in the outer flow after seeing pedestrian initial panels of :29.4 and :59 posted by frontrunning Cashahallic (Jim Pantaleano), who ultimately faded to fourth at the finish. At the three-quarter marker reached in 1:28.3, Beatty flipped Southwind Pepino three-wide around Bookem (Josh Sutton) who was racing bravely first-up on the outside and finished third. The winner opened up a two length margin in midstretch then held off runner-up Quick N Slick (Dan Noble) who was closing furiously after getting away at the back of the pack early. Beatty owns Southwind Pepino in partnership with Robert Sharrits.

Saratoga Casino and Raceway
Slugfest (Conway Hall) has come out swinging to start his 2014 campaign. The 5-year-old gelding won Friday’s Open Trot at Saratoga Casino and Raceway behind a wire-to-wire effort. The Maureen Salino trained trotter began his season last week with a fast closing second in the Open and on Friday night went right out to the early lead. Jay Randall sat behind Slugfest and he posted very even fractions before winning it in 1:59 over a sloppy track. Cash Poor (Austin Siegelman) finished second for the third time in four tries in the local feature while longshot House Money (Bruce Aldrich, Jr.) held on for third in the $18,190 Open. Slugfest returned $6.40 to win as the public’s second choice in the betting.