In a seemingly impossible spot at the three-quarter pole, Blue Knight rallied late to capture the $25,000 Open Handicap Trot at Plainridge Park on Friday afternoon (Oct. 8).
Northern Sultan (Mike Stevenson) and Northern Skyway (Shawn Gray) traded leads to the quarter in :27.2. Once settled, Northern Skyway took the field to the half in :56.3 as an outer flow began to form. Theresademoninme (Nick Graffam) led the way followed by Make It A Double (Matty Athearn) and finally Blue Knight, who was still seventh at this point.
The field tightened heading into the last turn where Make It A Double tipped three-deep around Theresademoninme and Blue Knight went four wide around everybody. Heading down the lane the entire field was spread evenly across the track with Blue Knight the widest. But Monti kept driving hard and Blue Knight completed the circuit, hitting the light first in 1:55.
The win was the seventh of the year for Blue Knight ($10), who has now amassed $86,525 in earnings this year for owner Richard Mason. Ivan Davies trains the gelding.
In the $20,000 upper-level conditioned trot, Stevic (Ivan Davies) made a bold early move to capture his sixth win of the year.
The heavily favoured New Legacy (Drew Monti) cut the half in :57 as Stevic was working his way up, first-over on the outside. By three-quarters Stevic had drawn within a length of New Legacy, but couldn't quite get by. New Legacy then pulled away by more than a length at the top of the stretch but Stevic kept digging and eventually wore down the leader, winning by 1/4 of a length at the line in a new lifetime best time of 1:55.
Stevic ($10.60) is owned by Shirley Michaud and is trained by his driver Davies, who ended up with a training double for the afternoon.
Drivers Drew Campbell, Drew Monti and Kevin Switzer Jr. all had two wins on Friday and were joined by trainer Elisha Lafreniere who ended up with two winners as well.
Live harness racing resumes at Plainridge on Sunday (Oct. 10) with post time at 2:00 p.m.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)