Colonial Downs Concludes 34-Day Meet
Colonial Downs' recently concluded standardbred season delivered the record-smashing times North America's lone one-turn mile is best known for.
Virginia racing fans got to see the fastest trot in the sport's history when Enough Talk won the third edition of the $100,000 Patriot Invitational in 1:49.3.
Enough Talk beat Vivid Photo by 8 1/2 lengths but the two-time defending champion still carved out an impressive feat in the Patriot, pushing his lifetime earnings past the $3 million mark.
First Rate earned his second track record in the $43,600 three-year-old colt and gelding Virginia Breeders Final with a 1:49 mile and Wholeftthegateopen earned the meet's fastest mile and smashed the track record for aged gelding pacers with a 1:48.4 clocking on October 26.
Horse of the Meet Pro North won five races and paced the fastest 1 1/4 miles in Colonial history with a 2:21.3 performance on November 2.
Sean Bier won four races on closing night to win the driving title by one victory over Chris Page. Bier finished with 50 wins and $185,123 in earnings from 213 starts.
Page finished second for the second straight season, finishing with 49 wins and a meet-high $200,787 in earnings from 265 starts.
Defending champion David Ingraham was third with 33 wins. Frank Milby was fourth with 26 wins and Mark Gingrich and Don Harmon tied for fifth with 25 trips to the winners circle.
Manley Brown, Jr. won his second straight training title by leading all conditions with 21 wins and $154,395 in earnings from 208 starts.
Don Harmon was second with 20 wins from 122 starts. Roland Dunavant, Jr. and Tony Zubkoff tied for third with 19 wins apiece. Richard Macomber rounded out the top five with 17 wins from just 28 starters.
Total handle reached $5,320,909.30, seven percent decline from last season's total of $5,726,356.
Attendance totaled 17,308, a 12 percent decline from the 19,602 passing through the turnstiles last season. On-track handle also dropped 12 percent to $1,222,141.30.
(With files from Colonial)