by Jim Moran, for Vernon Downs
Vernon, NY — Track record performances were produced by San Pail and Upside Hanover during Friday night’s (September 2) $691,300 End Of The Summer Show Down program at Vernon Downs.
San Pail, the top-ranked trotter in North America, extended his winning streak to three with a 1:51.1 victory in Friday’s $218,000 Credit Winner Open Trot, while Upside Hanover earned her second career victory and a 1:56.1 record in a division of the $72,600 Acorn (Historic Series) Stake for 2-year-old trotting fillies.
Following Action-Broadway’s 1:54.2 triumph in the evening’s $164,000 Muscle Hill Mare Trot, San Pail rallied from fifth in the early going and closed from third in the final furlong to defeat the fast-striding Lucky Jim by a neck in Friday’s eighth event. Il Villaggio was third.
The tight tally improved his season’s summary to 10 wins and a pair of second-place finishes in 12 starts, and it trimmed four-fifths of a second off the former track standard for older trotting geldings, which, ironically, was established by Lucky Jim last year. The 1:51.1 mile by San Pail is also the fastest trotting mile in the 58-year history of Vernon Downs.
Randy Waples drove San Pail for co-owner/trainer Rodney Hughes and his partner Glenn Van Camp as the 7-year-old son of San Pellegrino-Village Beauty collected his 45th career win and increased his lifetime earnings to $2,465,606.
Action-Broadway’s victory gave former Downs three-time driving champion Brian Sears four wins during Friday’s nine-race card. The fast-closing, head triumph marked the 10th this season and the 19th overall for the 4-year-old daughter of Broadway Hall-Photo With Molly, who is conditioned by Virgil Morgan, Jr. and owned by Kenneth Sommer. The win over the pacesetting Autumn Escapade increased her career bankroll to $743,310.
With Sears steering for trainer Robert Krivelin and the Hero Stables, Upside Hanover (Muscles Yankee-Up Front Laura) headed, and then passed, the front-striding Aldebaran Malibu in the final quarter and cut three-fifths of a second off the former track standard for frosh female proponents of the diagonal gait, which had been established by Seducedbychocolate in 2010.
Local trainer Gates Brunet urged Cowgirl Hall (Cash Hall-Centerfold Hall) on to a front-ending 1:57 score in the second Acorn Stake division for owners Theodore Gewertz, Michael Rosenthal, Jean Brunet and Deborah Brunet (Gates’ wife).
Friday’s other Historic Series winners included Mcerlean (McArdle-Igottwowordsforyou) in 1:53 in the Goshen Cup for 2-year-old male pacers, with Tim Tetrick teaming for trainer John Berger and owners Barbara Berger and John Siena; American Gangster (Andover Hall-Four Starz Lindy) in 1:55.3 in the E. H. Harriman Cup for freshman male trotters, with Sears sitting in for trainer Chris Oakes and owners Vincent J. Tudisco, Matt V. Tudisco and the Hauser Brothers Racing Enterprises; and Blackjack Princess (Cam’s Card Shark-Happy Doris), in 1:54.2 in the Debutante Stakes for 2-year-old filly pacers, with Sears steering for trainer Mark Ford and owner Robert O. Di Nozzi.
Versado captured the week’s $10,000 Open Pace in 1:51, with Tetrick driving for trainer Ron Burke and owners Howard Taylor, Edwin Gold, Weaver Bruscemi, LLC and the Burke Racing Stables, while the $10,000 Open Trot went to A Crown For Lindy, in 1:56 with Tetrick teaming for trainer Frank Antonacci and the Lindy Racing Stable.
Tetrick ended the evening with three driving victories.