The productive veteran Scorpion Moon converted a two-hole trip into the fastest trotting mile of the season during Friday night’s $9,500 featured eighth event at Vernon

Downs.

Chris Lems did the teaming for owner-trainer Tracy Brainard as Scorpion Moon ($10.80) sat in the cat-bird’s spot behind the front-striding favourite Lorenzo Dream until the stretch drive, then spurted to a nose triumph over last week’s winner in this Open class, Yankee Manny. The Saratoga-shipper Lorenzo Dream finished third.

Friday’s first-place finish marked the fifth victory in eight current outings and the 84th lifetime triumph for the 11-year-old son of Armbro Scorpion-Angies Nugget, who raised his career winnings to $930,680.

The 1:54 clocking lowered the track’s current standard for representatives of the diagonal gait by two-fifths of a second.

It was one of three tallies during Friday’s 12-race card for Lems, currently the track’s top dash-winning reinsman with 20 first-place finishes. The evening’s other multiple winners included drivers Rick Plano (three wins and two training tallies), Truman Gale (two driving wins) Frank Davis (two sulky scores), and Brainard (two training victories).

(Vernon Downs)