John Stark Jr.’s Xcuseme, by RC Royalty, will head into next week’s final of the John Mongeon Memorial Trotting Series as the big favourite after his performance on Wednesday (April 24) at Saratoga Casino Hotel.

The three-year-old trotter cruised to his fourth consecutive victory during Wednesday’s matinee card. He has now recorded back-to-back wins through the series’ two legs and is still undefeated in 2019.

Xcuseme made pretty easy work of his competition on Wednesday, as he coasted to a wire-to-wire victory in 1:58.1, which was the fastest clocking of the second leg.

Xcuseme, pictured victorious at Saratoga Casino Hotel on April 24, 2019.

While Xcuseme was the most decisive of the leg two winners in the Mongeon Trot, he wasn’t the only repeat victor. Living Proof I Am (Prayer I Am) also went back-to-back in the series’ legs as he got up in the final strides on Wednesday to score in 1:58.3. Ther clocking matched his win time from last week, which was a career best. Phil Fluet piloted the Andy Byler trainee to both of his series’ scores.

The other division of the second leg was won by Pumping Irony, by Muscle Mass. The Eve Bergeron-trained trotter cruised to victory as the public’s 1-5 betting favourite on Wednesday with Steve Genois in the sulky. A runner-up to Living Proof I Am in leg one, Pumping Irony recorded a convincing romp in 1:59 to punch her ticket to next week’s final, which will be contested for a purse of over $30,000.

Live racing will continue at Saratoga on Thursday. First post is set for 12:00 noon.

(With files from Saratoga Casino Hotel)