Thursday afternoon racing returned this week at Saratoga Casino Hotel and the thirteen-race matinee was highlighted by a $9,630 event for New York sired trotters.

John Stark, Jr.’s Jeters Way (Muscles Yankee) is in the midst of a successful sophomore season but has been feast or famine of late. The three-year-old recorded two wins in his last six starts heading into Thursday’s feature, including a career-best 1:57 victory in July, but also made a pair of breaks in his last handful of starts.

On Thursday, Jeters Way had to come from well off the pace and wound up first over on the race’s odds-on favourite All Night Credit (Shawn Gray). The leader enjoyed a tepid tempo in lap one making the task all the more daunting for Jeter who marched up in the two-path and took on the leader first-over before grinding him into submission in the final few feet of the race.

Jeters Way’s victory, which came in just 2:01.2, was his fifth on the season, a sophomore campaign that included him setting a 1:57 lifetime mark at Saratoga this summer. All Night Credit wound up second-best while Trotmundo (Billy Dobson) earned the show spot.

Jeters Way, who is trained and driven by John Stark, Jr., paid $13.60 in the mild upset and led an exacta and triple that returned $33 and $100.50, respectively.

Live racing continues on Friday night with first post time set for 6:45 p.m.

(Saratoga Casino Hotel)