Denver Dolly overcame driving rain and a sloppy track to deliver a career-best 1:56.4 victory in Thursday night’s second division of a $39,400 New York Sires Stakes late-closing contest for two-year-old male pacers

at Vernon Downs.

Snapping a string of three consecutive second-place finishes in the third event, Denver Dolly ($5.80) gained the lead in the final turn and raced on to a solid score, his second of the season for owner Alfred Ross. Fern Paquet, Jr. drove the bay son of Artiscape-Denverlove for trainer George Ducharme.

Thursday’s other late-closing flights went to A Major Haze (Art Major-Dorothys Jate) in 1:57.4 for driver Brian Mattison, trainer Paul Kelly and Wanda Polisseni’s Purple Haze Stables and Mosee Terror (Western Terror-Shimmer) in 1:58.1 for driver Chris Lems, trainer Paul Reid and the Bulletproof Enterprises.

Penny Pincher won Thursday’s $9,000 seventh race, the week’s top Miracle Mile test for female pacers, with a late-closing 1:56.1 effort. Howard Okusko, Jr. did the teaming for trainer Jim Perry and Ohio owners William J. and Jack M. Heinz. It was the five-year-old mare’s fifth season’s score and 13th all-time.

(Vernon Downs)