by Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs

Batavia, NY — The public was heavily backing Thunderbolt Jaxon after he won the top class the last three weeks, but Shady City ($9.40) had other ideas as he fired late to a photo win in the $9,500 feature at Batavia Downs on Saturday night (Dec. 10).

Paul White photo

Shady City wins the feature at Batavia Downs on Saturday.

Three horses bolted from the gate and argued for the front before Thunderbolt Jaxon (Ray Fisher Jr.) took control as they passed the quarter-mile pole. Things settled down until the half-mile when Brees Creek (Drew Monti) pulled first-over bringing an outer flow that had the race in two rows; three in and three out.

Heading towards three-quarters, Thunderbolt Jaxon had gapped Brees Creek and he went back to the pylons. This left China Dream (Shawn Gray) and Shady City (Larry Stalbaum) outside on the chase around the last turn. China Dream and Thunderbolt Jaxon then went stride for stride to the top of the lane and it looked like it was one of theirs for the taking.

But three lengths behind them, Stalbaum cranked up Shady City who then paced furiously down the lane. He gobbled up ground all the way to the wire and headed China Dream for the win in 1:55. Thunderbolt Jaxon hung on for third.

It was Shady City’s second win at Batavia Downs and fifth overall for the year and it increased his earnings to $63,582. Larry Stalbaum owns the 6-year-old son of Metropolitan who is trained by Kimberly Asher.

The Stalbaum-Asher combination also took the co-featured $8,600 pace when Itsonlyrocknroll A went wire-to-wire in 1:54.1 to score his third win in his last four starts and ninth win of the year.

Stalbaum also owns Itsonlyrocknroll A who now has earned $49,454 in 2016.

Several horse people had multiple win performances on Saturday night. Drew Monti and Larry Stalbaum both had the driving hat trick while Shawn Gray scored a double. Trainer Kim Asher sent three winners to post and JD Perrin sent two.

With two nights of racing left in the 2016 meet, Drew Monti is the dash driving leader with 114 wins and trainer JD Perrin leads in his category with 44 wins.

Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Friday (Dec. 16) with post time for the first race at 6:15 p.m.