Royal Max, once again handled by George Napolitano Jr., scored a repeat win in Pompano Park's $15,000 Open Handicap Trot on Wednesday night (Feb. 17).
The lightly raced five-year-old gelded son of RC Royalty, trained by Chris Oakes for owner Albert Crawford, toured the South Florida five-eighths mile oval in 1:54.1 -- the same time as last week's win.
The margin of victory this time around was one and three-quarter lengths -- wrapped up -- with Shes All In and Rick Plano teaming up for second and Diamond Dagger third for Mark O'Mara. Lucid Thoughts, who took an early lead before yielding to the winner around the first turn, was fourth while My Revenuer, last much of the mile, was fifth in the classy sextet.
Assigned the outside post in the field, Royal Max was on the engine when the wings opened and carved panels of :27.1, :56.2 and 1:25.1 while opening up a long lead -- five lengths -- turning for home. From there, it was a "cakewalk" as Royal Max was untouched to the wire.
In a post-race interview, Napolitano Jr. succinctly said, "Whatever you wrote last week, you can write the same thing this week.
"He was very sharp again, in fact, maybe even a little sharper than last week as this final quarter was, I think, a bit faster than last week.
"Gotta give credit where credit is due and that is to Chris (trainer Oakes), who got him back to where he is an Open trotter after nursing him back to health after an injury."
Royal Max, in only his eighth start over the past two seasons, now sports a 2-1-0 scorecard in his three starts this year and, with 10 wins in 29 lifetime starts, has career bounty of $160,700.
Off at 1-5 on the toteboard, Royal Max paid $2.40 to his many faithful.
Racing continues on Saturday night with two divisions of the continuing Isle Casino Racing Pompano Park Late Closing Series for mares. That lucrative series features a $75,000 final on March 5.
Last week's first leg winner, Totally Rusty and Show Runner are paired together in the first division along with Velocity Vespa and four others while, in the second division, Just A Bee, Godiva Seelster and Mach It A Par will vie for favouritism.
(Pompano Park)