The 2018 campaign has been a renaissance season at Saratoga Casino Hotel for veteran driver Jay Randall. The 57-year-old reinsman has surged up into fifth place in the local driver standings in what has been his best season in quite some time.
On Thursday afternoon (Nov. 15), Randall piloted two of the three winners in co-featured $11,000 races for New York-sired trotters.
The Amy Dowd-trained Cherry Peep (by Conway Hall) prevailed last week when Randall got a pocket trip for the three year old filly. On Thursday, Randall once again situated Cherry Peep into the pocket before closing up the inside to stop the timer in 1:59.1 in a near carbon copy of last week’s win.
Randall also piloted the Todd Buter-trained Grammy Winner (Credit Winner) to a wire-to-wire score in the second co-feature of the day. The three-year-old filly went coast-to-coast on Thursday and scored in 1:59.
The win with Grammy Winner was the first of ‘back-to-back jacks’ on the card for Buter and Randall, who teamed up for a score with veteran trotter Stitch In Time.
Randall completed a Thursday grand slam when he piloted Jordan Derue trainee Love Yourself (Rock N Roll Heaven) to a first-over score..
Live racing at Saratoga will continue on Friday. First-race post time will be at 6:45 p.m.
(With files from Saratoga Casino Hotel)