Jim Morrill Jr. has been dominating Friday nights at Buffalo Raceway the past few weeks with seven wins on a card becoming a regular occurrence. Driver Billy Davis Jr. wanted to get in on the act and has taken over Wednesday evenings.
Making the weekly trip from Flamboro Downs, Davis Jr. is sure liking the Hamburg, New York half-mile oval as he posted a seven-bagger, the first of his career, to highlight the Wednesday night action (April 20). He has now won 25 times in just 77 starts.
Davis Jr. was victorious with John Mungillo trainees Fresh Squeezed ($7.30) and Iwannabejustlikeu ($3.50), the Jim Graham stable's Drinkin N Dancin ($7.70) and Caddy Jeff ($6.50), as well as Helenas Hope ($3.40) and Cautious Optimism ($3.50) for trainer J D Perrin, and Jack Strait ($17.60) for Bob Johnson.
It's the fourth time in 2016 that a driver had seven wins on a program at Buffalo with Morrill Jr. doing it three times and Davis Jr. once. Kevin Cummings' record of eight still stands from June 11, 2005.
For Morrill Jr., he made the most of his one drive of the night as he drove the heavily favoured Dontch Remember ($4.80) to a nose victory over Fashion Katie in the $9,000 featured Open for the pacing mares.
By guiding Dontch Remember to her third win of the campaign in a seasonal best 1:57, Morrill Jr. took over sole possession of first-place in the driver's standings with 52 victories in just 108 starts. He'll have plenty of opportunity on Friday night to increase his margin as he is scheduled to drive in all 11 races.
It was a three-way battle to the top as Nutmegs Yankee, Mach This Way and Memumsnotnice all wanted command at the quarter pole. When the dust settled, Memumsnotnice came away with the lead and put of fractions of :28, :57 and 1:26.4. Those hot fractions proved to be costly in the end.
Dontch Remember, who wanted no part of the lead, and sat back in fourth. Going first over at the half and methodically cutting into the lead of Memumsnotnice, Dontch Remember finally gained control midway down the stretch.
It wasn't clear sailing, however, as Dontch Remember had to hold off the late rally of Fashion Katie (Drew Monti) and Nutmegs Yankee (Truman Gale), who finished second and third, respectively.
Owned by Michael Torcello and trained by Gerry Sarama, Dontch Remember (Western Terror-Dreamsicle) is a six-year-old mare that has earned $15,300 this season and $144,413 lifetime.
Racing will resume on Friday night at 5 p.m. with an 11-race card scheduled. There's a $1,884 carryover in the Pick 5, which begins in the fifth race.
(With files from Buffalo Raceway)