Cumberland, ME – Leading driver Kevin Switzer Jr. padded his lead in the standings with a seven-win day at Cumberland Raceway on Sunday (June 28), scoring in all but four races on the program.
Switzer Jr. started his reign of supremacy in the second race when he went wire-to-wire with Rau Rau (1:56.1, $3.80) for trainer Zach Vickerson. In the third he went three-wide down the backside to swoop the leaders in the stretch and prevail with Beyond The Past (1:56.4) and return a whopping $29.20 on a $2 win ticket. The 7-year-old son of JK Endofanera is trained by Bob Marston.
He came right back in the fourth with Marston’s Circling The Prey (1:55.4, $4.20), who is owned by Maine Amateur Driving Club (MADC) president Joe Burke. All three horses took new seasonal marks in the process.
Switzer Jr. got a break in the fifth while Todd Whitney won his umpteenth MADC event with a horse trained by Michelle Lefebvre. This week it was Gotafoolishdesire, who prevailed in 1:56, returning $2.80.
In the sixth race $5,800 feature it was another wire-to-wire score for blue and black adorned teamster, who scored with Ali in 1:55.2. Owned and trained by Chris DuBois, the 11-year-old son of Dali paid $5.20.
In the seventh and eighth races Switzer Jr. finished third on both occasions, after which he won the final three races on the program. Former Maine Sire Stakes star Dawn To Dark went from pillar to post in 1:56.3, obtaining a new time badge for owner-trainer Marc Tardif in race nine. The heavy 1-9 favorite and 4-year-old son of Deuce Seelster returned just $2.10.
In the 10th, Switzer Jr. sat a pocket trip with Jet Wills and tipped down the backstretch to grab the win in 1:58.2 for another Bob Marston pupil. They paid $3.
In the 11th race finale Switzer Jr. found himself right where he likes to be – on the front end with the favorite. Leaving swiftly from post 5, the Sheriff N made every call a winning one, tripping the timer in 1:57 for trainer Zach Vickerson, and returning $2.60.
When the dust settled from the hot afternoon harness racing Switzer had increased his place atop the leaderboard with 61 seasonal victories at First Tracks Cumberland. Tied for second with 48 apiece are Nick Graffam and Aaron Hall.
With a little over a month to go in the spring-summer meet, Lefebvre leads all conditioners with 42 wins. Marson sits second with 35 wins and DuBois (20), Sara Harrington and Autym Sowers (19) round out the top five trainers.
Racing resumes on Saturday (July 4), as there will be no racing on Friday, a federal holiday. After this weekend, First Tracks Cumberland reverts back to a Friday-Saturday schedule, with the exception of the three-day run from Friday, July 24, through Sunday, July 26, during the penultimate weekend of the meet.
First post is 12:15 p.m. (EDT) during the extended pari-mutuel meeting, which runs through Aug. 2. A complete calendar and additional information can be viewed at First Tracks Cumberland’s website.