A two-time Delaware Standardbred Breeders' Fund (DSBF) champion in his rookie season, Melvin G kicked off the December DSBF series for three-year-old male trotters at Bally's Dover in victorious fashion with an easy 1:57.2 score in the first of two $27,778 first-round preliminary events on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
Making just his second start since April, Melvin G and driver Tim Tetrick floated forward at race's outset and ended up third as Wolfpack Cheddar (Pat Berry) seized control from Delaware Xactly (Jason Thompson) through a :28.3 quarter. As Wolfpack Cheddar began to widen his advantage past a :57.3 half, Tetrick angled Melvin G off the pegs to begin a sustained push forward up the backstretch. The three-year-old E L Platinum-Jersey Punk gelding gained steadily to collar Wolfpack Cheddar with a 1/16th of a mile to go and won going away by 2-3/4 lengths. Delaware Xactly finished third.
Les Givens trains Melvin G, a 12-time winner from 16 starts with $293,767 in career earnings, for Legacy Racing of Delaware and Nanticoke Racing. The gelding paid $2.10 to win.
In the other section, Chex Check provided the fractions for Montrell Teague, leading through :29.3, :59.3, and 1:29 splits before defeating the first-over Yale (Art Stafford Jr.) and pocketed rival Bucky Highway (Ross Wolfenden). The gelding, owned by MST Racing Inc. and Elizabeth Murphy, scored by three-quarters of a length in 1:58.2. Clyde Francis trains the son of Iron Mine Bucky-Judy Luns, who has won five times 25 races in his career with earnings of $118,743. He paid $8.40 to win.
Sophomore pacing fillies commence their DSBF series on Wednesday, with 24 entrants split into three $20,000 USD first-round events carded as Races 5, 8 and 10 on a 15-race program at Dover. First post is 4:30 p.m.
(DSBF)