A Penny Earned posted a career-fastest 1:53.1 Open Trot victory, Hot Cowboy became the winningest pacer at the 59-program meeting and Jimmy Whittemore chalked up four driving tallies during Monday’s special 10-race matinee program at Vernon Downs.

With multiple Downs race-winning champ Whittemore handling the lines in Monday’s $10,000 eighth event, A Penny Earned idled in fifth place to the half, timed in :56, then scooted three-wide around the final bend and flashed home in a :28.1 final quarter to secure an impressive seven-length triumph.

Improving his win-mark by one tick of the timer, the four-year-old bay son of Conway Hal-Penny Dream collected his fourth current victory and 12th lifetime tally, while hiking his career purse earnings to more than $242,000 for trainer George Ducharme, an owner along with New Englanders Nicola Oliva, Alfred Ross and Paul Fontaine.

Whittemore also finished first with the first-time race-winning trotter Dont Miss A Tweet (1:58.2), the diagonally-gaited Leahs Ex (1:55) and pacer Katelyns Scott (1:52) to register his third four-win outing of the track’s 60th anniversary season.

Hot Cowboy, a consistent six-year-old campaigner owned and trained by Truman Gale, roared home in a :27.4 last quarter to win Monday’s fifth event in 1:52.3. The solid score was his seventh at the meeting and made him the winningest pacer of 2013 here to date. It also tied him with the trotter Ulay Boko for most equine triumphs through Sept. 2.

Second-leading reinsman and conditioner Roman Lopez logged a pair of first-place driving finishes during the bright, sunny afternoon, while Truman Gale gained a pair of training tallies.

(Vernon Downs)