Sportsmuffler remained the mare to beat in western New York after scoring her second straight top-class distaff pacing feature victory at Batavia Downs on Wednesday night (Nov. 7).
Getting away fourth, Sportsmuffler (Billy Davis Jr.) watched as Machin Marley (Kevin Cummings) flew to the front and guided the field’s fortunes to the half in a tepid :58.3. Shortly after that marker, Kruella pulled first-over and eventually took command of the pace by the three-quarter pole. With Machin Marley starting to lose touch, Davis, who was a boxed fourth, was able to sneak Sportsmuffler out and around the pack before going three-deep into the last turn. First drawing even with Kruella, Sportsmuffler then pulled away from everyone to win by three in 1:56.1.
It was the ninth win of the year and 35th career victory for Sportsmuffler ($7.90), who is owned by Rose Campbell and trained by Steve Kiblin. Sportsmuffler has now earned $60,366 this year.
In the co-featured $8,800 fillies and mares Open II, Hey Kobe (Davis) led every step of the way going gate to wire and winning by two lengths in 1:56.4. The Mihajlo Zdjelar-trained Hey Kobe ($12.00) scored her sixth win of the year for owner Keith Pinkowski.
Billy Davis Jr. won both top events on Wednesday but he ended up with a driving grand slam as well. Besides the already mentioned Sportsmuffler and Hey Kobe, Davis also won with Sweet Kimmy (2:03.1, $6.70) and Gussys Dragon (1:58.3, $43).
With no winning ticket in the early Pick-5 wager on Wednesday, there is a $709 carryover and a $2,000 guaranteed pool for the early Pick-5 at Batavia Downs when live racing resumes on Friday night (Nov. 9). The early Pick-5 is a 50-cent base wager that starts in race one and runs through race five. Post time for the first race on Friday is 6 p.m.
(Batavia Downs)