Friday night turned out to be quite a night for both Lutetium and Kevin Cummings. They teamed up to post the upset in the featured $8,500 Open Trot at Batavia Downs.
Lutetium has been doing the dirty work for nearly two months, setting the pace, but not reaping any of the rewards, tonight it was a different story.
Driver Kevin Cummings stuck to the usual game plan, sending Lutetium to the top and this time it paid off in a wire-to-wire victory.
Lutetium ($12.60) posted fractions of :28.4, :58.4 and 1:27.4 in scoring the 1:57.4 win over Mystical Escapade and third-place finisher Haste. Mystical Escapade was in perfect striking position in the stretch but the long first over trip proved too much as Lutetium easily prevailed by 1-1/2 lengths.
It was the ninth victory of the season for Lutetium (Credit Winner-Luby) who is owned by Colleen Girdlestone and trained by Mark Laidlaw. It moved the six-year-old gelding's seasonal bankroll to $47,509 and $175,181 lifetime.
In addition to winning the Open trot, Cummings made five other visits to he winner’s circle. Jim McNeight scored a double.
(Batavia Downs)