Batavia, NY — Despite being in a bad spot amidst significant road traffic late in the mile that could have cost her a victory, Summer Slash was given a masterful steer in the late stages of the race to win the featured $11,800 Class-AA Open Handicap for fillies and mares on Wednesday (Oct. 29) night at Batavia Downs.
Summer Slash (Ray Fisher Jr.) got away fifth as Delta Three N (Jim McNeight Jr.) and Tres Chic Bluechip (Joe Chindano Jr.) traded leads during the :28.2 first quarter. Once settled on the point, Tres Chic Bluechip was quickly faced with an outer-flow before the half, led by Rightfully Mine (Kyle Swift) and bolstered by Gia’s Surreal (Kevin Cummings) and Summer Slash, who was third-over in the breeze.
Positions remained unchanged to three-quarters, but when the race made its way through turn four, Rightfully Mine was pacing around the leader and Gia’s Surreal had swung three-wide around them both. But instead of going four-wide off his cover, Fisher sent Summer Slash three positions down and into the passing lane, where the mare shot through like a rocket and beat the rest of the girls to the line by a length in 1:55.1, blowing-up the tote board at 10-1.
It was the sixth win of the year for Summer Slash ($23.04), who is owned by Ilovemyharnesshorsesummer and trained by Ryan Swift.
Drew Monti and Joe Chindano Jr. both had driving hat tricks while trainer Shawn McDonough registered two wins on the night.
Live racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Friday (Oct. 31) with post time at 6:00 p.m.
Free full card past performance programs for every live card of racing at Batavia can always be downloaded at The Downs’ website (bataviadownsgaming.com) under the “Live Racing” tab. Then you can watch all the races live as they happen for free on the Batavia Downs YouTube page.