Monday afternoon’s card at Saratoga Casino Hotel featured two divisions of the second leg of the “Bullet” Bob Meyer Memorial Trotting Series.
Im Not Vanilla came up just shy of becoming the lone two-leg winner when the Jackie Cantine-trained trotter finished second at odds of 1-5. Notmeitsyou grabbed the early lead with his trainer Phil Fluet at the controls. The six-year-old son of Chapter Seven backed things down and reached the half in an uncontested 1:01.2 before the favourite made his move approaching the three-quarter pole. Notmeitsyou had enough left to rebuff the challenge in the stretch from Im Not Vanilla, who had to settle for second while The Lindy Treaty (Chris Long) finished third. Notmeitsyou, who is owned by John Quimby LLC and the Phil Fluet Stable, paid $13 to win in the mild upset.
Tymal Tullo punched his ticket to next week’s series final when the Andy Byler trainee out-closed his rivals to prevail in 2:00.3. Alek Chartrand sat behind Tymal Tullo, who tracked down his race’s favourite Itsoneofthose (Jimmy Devaux) and leg one winner Amazing Sevens (Phil Fluet) late in the game to secure his fifth victory of the season. Pulling off the mild upset at odds of 3-1, Tymal Tullo secured his spot in next Monday’s final. The five-year-old son of Kadabra is owned by Mahlon Stoltzfus of Millerstown, Pennsylvania.
The meet’s leading trainer, Larry Stalbaum, added another pair of victories to his total led by a score in the Open Trot with his Big Box Hanover (sired by Uncle Peter). Stalbaum piloted four winners on the card.
Live racing continues on Tuesday afternoon at Saratoga with first post time set for noon.
(With files from Saratoga)