On a night that featured high wind, rain and a very sloppy track, Corleone Hall overcame the conditions, as well as five other horses, as he won the $9,000 top trotting feature at Batavia Downs on Friday night (Nov. 27).
Corleone Hall got off to a very slow start and watched Diamonds For Life (Jack Flanigen) scoot out to an early lead from fifth, a gapped eight-lengths off. Diamonds For Life trotted along unchallenged and maintained a two-length advantage to the half in 1:00.1.
At that point, post time favourite Studio City (Dave McNeight III) pulled first-over and was followed by Northern Bullet (JD Perrin). As the field bunched going to three-quarters, Mike Caprio swung Corleone Hall three-deep and moved into striking position.
Studio City took the lead at the head of the lane, but there were five horses within three lengths of each other, all ready to stampede to the wire. But it was Corleone Hall, widest of all, who found solid footing in the center of the track and stormed down the lane to capture a narrow victory in 2:02.3.
The win was the sixth of the year for Corleone Hall ($8.00) and it pushed his annual earnings to $43,002 for owner/trainer Perry Wilson.
Batavia Downs leading driver, Kevin Cummings, registered another multi-win evening Friday when he got across first in four races on the card. In the last four nights of racing at Batavia, Cummings has won 19 races.
Jack Flanigen and Dave McNeight III both won two races and trainers Alex Giuliani and JD Perrin sent two stable members each to the winner’s circle.
(With files from Batavia Downs)