The leading driver at Batavia Downs, Drew Monti added to his already considerable lead on Saturday, Nov. 16 after bagging five more winners during the night's proceedings. Monti won with Soul Assassin (1:55.2, $6.70), Actor Hanover (1:56.1, $22.60), Parmesan N (1:56, $4.10), Stratosphere (1:55.4, $2.60) and Power And Grace (1:58.3, $6.90) who will be further covered later.
Monti now has 102 wins for the summer and fall meet at Batavia Downs and sits 16 wins ahead of Joe Chindano Jr. (86) and 17 ahead of Kevin Cummings (85) after Saturday’s action with only seven days of live racing left in the meet.
For the year as a whole, including action at other tracks, Monti has now won 215 races and more than $2.7 million in purses in 2024.
One race Monti did not win on Saturday was the featured $18,310 Open Handicap Trot where Makes Me Charlie (Mike Baumeister) claimed his first top class event at Batavia Downs after having won his way up the class ladder since late September.
Makes Me Charlie was on a mission as he blasted off the gate and opened up a three-length lead that he maintained to the quarter in :27.4 and the half in :57.3. And there was no let up in sight as he swung onto the second circuit as Makes Me Charlie stretched out to a six length advantage at three-quarters in 1:25.2. With the field mostly scrambling for minor spoils at this point, Makes Me Charlie entered the stretch still up by six and made his way to the line first in 1:55.3 to take a new lifetime mark.
Owned by Margaret and Amy Butler and trained by Tom Mays, Makes Me Charlie ($14.00) mustered his fifth win of the year.
There were also two $15,493 upper-class conditioned races, one on the trot and one on the pace, that also yielded impressive front-end winners.
In the first, the lone mare in the race, Power And Grace (pictured above with Drew Monti), went gate to wire to defeat her seven male rivals by 1-1/2 lengths in 1:58.3. With her 12th win of the year, nine-year-old Power And Grace notched her 68th career win for owners Hartel Maintenance, Lormer McClure, Brett MacDonald and Reg Higgs. Ron MacDonald trains the winner, whose career bankroll surpassed $636,000.
Then later in the pace, Youmakemyheartsing (Kyle Cummings) also went right to the front and paced unchallenged until deep stretch, where he turned back Ideal Artillery (Dan Yetman) and won in 1:55.2. The win was the 40th in the career of Youymakemyheartsing ($5.40) who is owned by his driver, Kyle Cummings, in partnership with his trainer, Tammy Cummings.
Sam Smith led all trainers on Saturday after three from his stable scored wins.
Live harness racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Wednesday, Nov. 20 with post time at 6:00 p.m. and there will also be a carryover of $1,053 in the Jackpot Super Hi-5 pentafecta in the 13th race.
(Batavia Downs)