Freshman pacing colts received top billing on Saturday, October 12 at Balmoral Park as a field of eight state-breds gathered for the $12,000 Betzotic Stake.

When the dust settled it was Jack and Peggy Hood, Mystical Marker Farms and Dirk Simpson Stables' Traffic Cop who came away with the top honours as he rallied for a three-quarter-length victory in 1:52.1.

Given a perfect steer by driver Todd Warren, the gelded son of Sportsmaster—Dixiegirl came away third while heavily favoured Unlocked (Mike Oosting) rattled off splits of :27.3, :56.3 and 1:24.3.

Things looked bleak for the rest of the field as Unlocked sped away to a three and a half length lead at the mid-stretch call, but Warren angled his charge to the outside where the Dirk Simpson trainee began to cut into the leader’s margin.

With a six-week layoff finally beginning to take a toll on Unlocked, a hard-charging Traffic Cop curbed the pacesetter with 100 yards to go and eventually drew clear with a :27 final quarter to notch his third win 14 lifetime starts. Unlocked held on for second while I Bizel The Shizel (John De Long) finished third, five and a half lengths behind the winner.

With the win, Traffic Cop now sports a record of 3-4-2 in 14 starts with earnings of $71,635.

(Balmoral Park)