Chapheart made his way back to Plainridge Park on Friday, Oct. 6 after two starts at Saratoga and brought his best game with him as he turned in a career-best effort while winning the featured $25,000 Winners Over Trot.
Chapheart (Brett Beckwith) was the fastest of a three-horse charge off the gate and took the front before the :27 quarter. Enhance Yourcalm N (Kevin Switzer Jr.) continued to advance on the outside and supplanted Chapheart on the point in front of the stands. Positions remained unchanged until three-quarters when Big Al M (Matty Athearn) pulled from third to challenge the leader. Big Al M hung around to the top of the stretch where his bid failed, leaving Enhance Yourcalm N only the pocket-sitting Chapheart to hold off. But that was not going to happen as Beckwith found room at the pylons and bolted clear by a length at the light where he won in 1:53 and took a new lifetime mark.
The win was the eighth of the year for Chapheart ($6.40), owned by Fac Racing and Yannick GIngras. Melissa Beckwith trains the winner. It was the second win of the day for Brett Beckwith.
In the co-featured $20,000 upper-level conditioned trot, Echo De Meautis Fr (Matty Athearn) took an early lead and never looked back. After setting fractions of :26.3, :55.4 and 1:23.3, Echo De Meautis Fr turned back a stretch rush from the tripped-out Golden Kronos (Kevin Switzer Jr.) and won by three-quarters of a length in 1:53.4.
Now with 11 wins on the year, Echo De Meautis Fr ($2.20) is the winningest horse of the current Plainridge meet with 10 local tallies. Echo De Meautis Fr is owned by Melvin Fink and trained by Jimmy Nickerson. The win gave both Athearn and Nickerson doubles for the day.
Live harness racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday, Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. and there will be a $27,197 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta wager in race six.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)