A sloppy track and a race surface that favoured front-runners was the perfect recipe once again for Lutetium as he scored his third straight convincing victory in winning the $10,500 Open Trot at Buffalo Raceway on Friday night (April 4).

The front-running and off-track loving Lutetium ($2.80) bolted right to the top at the start of the race and played "catch me if you can" with the rest of the field.

After posting fractions of :29, 1:01.1 and 1:31.2, the race to the wire wasn't a matter of who was going to win, but by how much. Lutetium (Kevin Cummings) enjoyed a six-length edge at the top of the stretch as the rest of the field threw in the towel. He was throttled down by mid-stretch as Heartsaregonnaroll (Jim McNeight) was a distant second and Studio City (Aaron Byron) third.

The margin of victory for Lutetium (Credit Winner-Luby) was three and a quarter lengths after splashing and dashing to a winning time of 2:01.4.

The win was the third in eight appearances this season for Lutetium, who is owned by Colleen Girdlestone and trained by Mark Laidlaw. The win pushed the seven-year-old gelding's bankroll to $18,585 in 2014 and $204,291 lifetime.

A solid 13-race card is planned for Saturday night at Buffalo Raceway with the call to post slated for 6:40 p.m. The rescheduled $22,500 Michael Scores Knockout Claiming Series finals will go off as the sixth race and the $10,500 Open Pace set as the eighth race.

(The Meadows)