After dominating the Tuesday card with seven wins, Corey Callahan did one better on Wednesday, Feb. 18, making it 15 wins in two nights at Dover Downs.
Callahan steered Classic Belisima, who won four in a row on the front end before a third last start, to victory in the $14,500 4&5-Year-Old Winners Over feature trot. They took a two-hole seat and sped down the passing lane for the 1:55.3 triumph. It was Callahan’s fifth of eight wins during the chilly night.
After sweeping the first three races, Callahan piloted Bill Cantrell’s hard-hitting four-year-old daughter of Crazed-Classic Yankee, trained by John Cabot, to victory in the feature. The win was the mare's ninth in 25 career starts and brought her purse earnings to $63,315. Everyones Talkin (Trace Tetrick) led for most of the mile and was a close second at the finish, breaking a two-win streak. Stirling Charisma (Vic Kirby) closed well to be in the photo finish, but had to settle for third.
Callahan’s eight-bagger is one fewer than the track record of nine, set Feb. 27, 2011 by Tim Tetrick. The track’s leading driver for the past seven seasons, Callahan has already wrapped up the 2014-15 title. He has won 199 races this meet, almost double runner-up Allan Davis, who drove two winners tonight for a meet total of 101 victories.
While Tim Tetrick is away in Australia preparing for the World Driving Championship, his brother Trace took the lead in the $11,500 sub-feature trot with Powerful Charger, a horse Tim and Jim King own, and then fought off a strong assault in the stretch for a 1:54.1 victory -- the first of the year for the Powerful Emotion-Fox Valley Poetry gelding. Picard (Callahan) rallied to finish second in front of I Like My Boss (Jonathan Roberts).
A five-race win streak ended for Joyeux Dream, the second-place finisher in the $15,000-$20,000 Claiming/Handicap. Can Do closed well for Vic Kirby, who co-owns the gelding with Chris Giaccio, to win the trot in 1:54.2.
Trainer Dylan Davis moved into a tie for first among trainers. Davis and Doug Lewis have haltered 41 winners while third-place Wayne Givens has conditioned 39 winners.
Tony Morgan won one race to up his career total to 14,968 winning drives.
Jebswesternshark, last week’s 10-1 upsetter, meets Bandolito, Nova Artist and Believe This Bob, among nine starters in the $26,000 Delaware Special headliner on Thursday.
(With files from Dover Downs)