Upset City At Saratoga
Monday’s matinee at Saratoga Casino Hotel featured some big upsets by trotters.
Miss Flora (SJs Caviar) set her lifetime mark at the Spa last year when she trotted to a 1:55.4 score and on Monday made her return to town to compete in a $8,500 trotting event.
The Mario Dessureault-trained Miss Flora was piloted by Phil Fluet and was dismissed at odds of 17-1 when she sprung into early action. The six year old mare made an easy lead and made it look easy going coast-to-coast to prevail in 1:56.2.
Miss Flora paid $37.20 to win in her upset.
While Miss Flora did surprise on the Monday card, she wasn’t the biggest longshot to prevail, not by a longshot.
A J Destiny drew the outside post in a low-level conditional trot and driver Barry Segel blasted the veteran trotter out to the early lead. A J Destiny cut the mile and never gave way before stopping the timer in 1:59.3 to score at odds of 29-1.
While the $61.50 win payoff was the highest of the day, there was yet another big upset in a trotting race on Monday as Jackie Cantine’s Im Not Vanilla shook loose late and got up to win in 1:57.3 at odds of 25-1.
Im Not Vanilla returned $53.50 in his upset victory on a day where being a longshot was no problem for a host of trotters at Saratoga.
Live racing resumes on Friday evening at the Spa with a 6:45 p.m. first post.
(Saratoga Casino Hotel)