Plainville, MA — After taking a predominantly overland route, Turn The Page N closed sharply to win her second top class pace for the ladies in the $25,000 feature at Plainridge Park on Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 13).
Turn The Page N and driver Ron Cushing got away sixth as The Panthiest A (Shawn Gray) seated Side Piece (Drew Monti) and parked Seaside Tina (Jay Randall) to the quarter in :26.1. With the top three in the same order moving to the half, Cushing tipped Turn The Page N to join the fray second-over moving into turn two.
As the pace stiffened going to three-quarters, Seaside Tina began to fade, forcing Turn The Page N to go three-wide in a :27.2 third split. As they passed that marker and headed into the final bend, The Panthiest A and Turn The Page N were side by side and matching strides. The battle continued into the stretch, but Turn The Page N started to separate herself and eventually pulled away to a 1-1/4-length lead at the line, where she won in 1:51.1.
It was the fourth win of the year for Turn The Page N ($2.80), who is owned by Cushing in partnership with Kevin Sywyk. Carlos Rodriguez trains the winner.
In the $18,500 conditioned pace for 5-year-olds and under, Sweet Jeff IR (Nick Graffam) went right for the lead, marched off fractions of :28, :56.4 and 1:24.4 before turning for home, and held off ER Griffin (Brett Beckwith) and Maggie At Bat (Matty Athearn) to win in 1:52.3.
It was the sixth win of the meet for Sweet Jeff IR ($10.60), who continued his prominent position in the class as he has not missed the board in 15 starts at Plainridge this year. The Irish-bred son of Sweet Lou is owned by Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi and is trained by Joe Nelson.
Drew Campbell was the leading driver on Tuesday with three wins on the card while 11 different trainers each won one race apiece.
There was one winner of the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race nine. The single unique winning combination of 4-3-2-8-1 returned $4,486.54 for the 20-cent wager.
Live racing at Plainridge Park resumes on Thursday (Aug. 15) with post time at 4 p.m.