by Mike Sweeney, publicity director, Scarborough Downs

Scarborough, ME — Victory Tax trumped his previous lifetime best on Saturday (Oct. 27) at Scarborough Downs, racing the twice-around oval in 1:57.2. That effort established a new track record for older geldings on the trot, supplanting the previous benchmark of 1:57.3 established by Dink Adoo (Robert Sumner) and then equaled by Pembroke Prayer (Heath Campbell) in the 2010 edition of the $50,000 Joseph Ricci Memorial Trot.

Ed Szalajeski, Sr. photo

Victory Tax with driver Drew Campbell in a track record performance on Saturday at Scarborough Downs.

Victory Tax, a 6-year-old son of Victory Sam, is owned by Kyle Gibbs, trained by Steven Vafiades and was driven to his 36th career victory by Drew Campbell.

“He was trotting beautifully today,” Campbell said, “and he felt so comfortable at the half. But when my brother Heath came at us (with Folk Tail), I knew we had to scamper that third quarter. And when I saw the teletimer come up with 1:27.3 at three-quarters, I said, ‘he’s doing so well, he’s not even stressed. We’ve got a shot at the record today.’

“We got the divisional record today, but I’m convinced that if another horse was coming at us at the wire, he would have dug in deeper and we would have crushed the overall record. Steve has done a great job with Victory Tax all year long. The trotter has taken it to the best in the state every single week. Can you imagine — he’s just as good now as he was in June.”

In other news, Scarborough horsemen and horsewomen continued their month-long effort of raising breast cancer awareness by dressing their horses in pink. Today, a representative of Susan G. Komen Foundation of Maine was in attendance at the races, where both awareness and money were raised through a 50/50 raffle and donations, which totaled $400 for the organization.

“I’m very proud of the Scarborough Downs folks — staff and fans alike,” said Holly Korda, Board Member of the Maine chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. “What incredible generosity to raise these funds which go to community programs in Maine to assist women and men affected by breast cancer, to receive screening, treatment and support research to find the cure.”

The fundraising effort continues on Sunday afternoon at Scarborough Downs as we head to post at 12:05 p.m.