Illinois conceived and foaled trotters took to the track in Wednesday’s featured event, which was a $10,000 elimination for next Wednesday’s Cardinal Stake
. The top seven finishers in Wednesday’s event will join Fox Valley Steffen, Blown Away and Vapor Star for next week’s $47,000 (est.) final.
On paper this race looked like a showdown between Lincoln Land elimination winners Codetalker and Diamond Joe. But as is so often the case with these young trotters it turned into a parade of longshots as Bomar Stables' Victor B, a 15-1 longshot in the race, came flying on the far outside to win by three-quarters of a length in a career best of 2:01.3 on a damp and chilly night.
After a slow start which saw him get away eighth in the field of 10, driver Art Gregory Jr. decided to save ground the entire way with Victor B as several of the early leaders made breaks after posting early splits of :29.2, :59.2 and 1:30.3.
Still sitting near the back of the pack, the gelded son of Banderas Hall was seventh as the field turned for home. After finding racing room with the field scattering due to some breaking horses, Gregory moved his charge to the far outside. With the tough early splits also taking a toll on the front end horses the Robert Crivokapich trainee began “picking them up and laying them down.” Flying by his rivals, the bay gelding certainly did not look a horse that had gone winless through his first six career starts as he cruised by them all for the victory.
Another outsider One High Game (JD Finn), who was sent off at 65-1, also rallied from far back to finish second while Star On Ice (John De Long) trotted evenly to finish third. Also gaining spots in the final were Codetalker, Tuff Guy JJ, Cooperize and Diamond Joe.
The longshot lit up the board at $33.60, $15.80 and $8.60. One High Game returned $43.00 and $27.60 while Star On Ice paid $7.20. The winning Exacta combination of 3-10 returned a whopping $1,048.60. The Trifecta paid a whopping $2018.40 on two of three while the 10 cent Superfecta of 3-10-4-1 returned $2,682.52.
(Balmoral Park)