by Sam Pendolino, Buffalo Raceway Publicity Director/Public Relations

Hamburg, NY — For the second week in a row, Whitewall Hanover, a 5-year old gelded son of Western Ideal, went wire-to-wire to win the Open Handicap Pace here at Buffalo Raceway on Saturday night. This week’s winning time of 1:58.4 establishes a new seasons’ best mile.

Paul White Photo

Whitewall Hanover went wire-to-wire to win the Open Handicap Pace at Buffalo Raceway on Saturday night.

Owned by Betty Tauber of East Brunswick, N.J., Whitewall Hanover and reinsman Ken Holliday made every pole a winning one. Leaving from the far outside in the field of seven, Holliday and Whitewall Hanover set all the quarter-mile fractions in the race, :29.2, 1:00, and 1:30 to the three-quarter mark. A: 28.4 last quarter-mile was all that was needed to edge second place finishers Elephants Can Fly (Robert Dinning) by one length. Badlands Come Home (John Cummings, Jr.) came in the show spot.

“He’s going to get a lot better,” said Holliday. “Right now he’s (Whitewall Hanover) just like a big orangutan out there”.

It was the second win of the season for Whitewall Hanover ($12.80), and the $4,500 share of the winning purse boosted his season’s earnings to $8,350 and $51,213 lifetime

Saving Lives and driver Jim McNeight rallied from dead last to win the $7,500 co-featured first race for owner Michael Calimeri of Falconer, NY.

Leaving from post five in the filed of six, Saving Lives and McNeight were sitting sixth as eventual second place Scudder (Ken Holliday) and C J’s Nutcracker (Mike Caprio) battled for the early lead. “Nutcracker” won the battle to the quarter-mile pole in :30.3. Scudder retook the lead to the half in 1:00.4 and cruised to three-quarters in 1:31.3. Saving Lives was now perfectly situated on the outside ready to unleash his powerful stretch drive. It was a good battle in the lane that saw Saving Lives prevail by three-quarters of a length. Kilkerran Union (Robert Dinning) came in third.

It was the second win of the season for Saving Lives ($6.40), and the $3,750 share of the winning purse boosted his season’s earnings to $7,907 and $83,939 lifetime.