Jimmy Devaux swept the co-features at Saratoga Casino Hotel on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 5. The three-time defending leading driver at the Spa piloted pacer Henceforth and trotter Facebook Official to victories in their respective $13,194 co-featured races.
Devaux, who wound up with four driving winners in total on the 10-race card, put the Andy Gardner-trained Henceforth on the front-end and never looked back in the pacing feature on the matinee program. Henceforth pulled off a series victory in the Gary Kamal Memorial Pace contested at the Spa in October after winning back-to-back legs of the series before scoring a wire-to-wire win in the $30,400 final despite drawing post eight for the try. Devaux sat behind the three-year-old Huntsville-Ever After gelding in all three series scores and was back at the controls for Tuesday’s front-running score that came in 1:53.3. Henceforth now has piled up 14 victories (the majority of which came in the New York Fair Circuit this summer) for owners Kevin Gale and Nicholas Mackey.
Facebook Official drew the rail in his return to town following a lengthy stint competing at Plainridge Park for trainer Jesse McAssey. The four-year-old Helpisontheway-Bambino Explosion gelding sat the pocket on Tuesday and evacuated that spot past the three-quarter pole. While at first, Facebook Official didn’t look to be surging past the race’s leader, the McAssey trainee kept grinding it out before getting the better of front-stepping Tattooman in the final strides to score in 1:58 for his second win of the season. Facebook Official is owned by Adam Friedland.
Live harness racing resumes on Saturday evening with a first post time of 5 p.m.
(With files from Saratoga Casino Hotel; Photo of Henceforth from a previous win)