The lake effect snows blew into Genesee County making Batavia Downs look like the North Pole, and Mydelight Bluechip made like Rudolph and led all the way to win the $10,000 Fillies and Mares Open Handicap Pace on the last Wednesday night (Dec. 6) of racing for the meet.
Mydelight Bluechip (Ben McNeil) was on a “take no prisoners” mission as she left and parked Little Joke (Billy Davis, Jr.) and Voltina (Kevin Cummings) to the half in :56.3. As the race went on to the second circuit, Little Joke continued to apply the pressure but Voltina faded away, allowing Miss Irish Rose A (Larry Stalbaum) room to advance to the outside from sixth and move into a closer third position.
Moving through the last turn, Mydelight Bluechip put away both of those challengers and led by two lengths. At that point it looked like she’d wrapped things, up until Squeeze This (Drew Monti) and Hey Kobe (Shawn McDonough) came flying late, gobbling up ground in the stretch. Mydelight Bluechip dug in and pulled out the win by a narrowing margin in 1:57.2.
Privately purchased on November 11 by Ellen McNeil, Mydelight Bluechip ($20.80) scored her first victory for her new owner and third of the year overall. The five-year-old daughter of Bettors Delight is trained by John McNeil, III, rounding out the McNeil trifecta in the race.
In the co-featured $8,000 distaff Open II, Sportsmuffler (Drew Monti) took the lead before the half and from there left the rest of the field in her rearview mirror as she pulled away to a seven-length win in 1:56.2. Owned by Lav Racing Stable and trained by Mike Carrubba, Sportsmuffler ($3.70) registered her 10th win of the year and pushed her earnings to $54,149 as a result.
Monti was red-hot on a cold night, winning four races on the card. Besides scoring with Sportsmuffler, Monti also won with Tymal Luckynpink (1:57.1, $5.50), Juxlivin My Dream (1:59.2, $10.20), and Hold On Tightly (2:02.3, $21.20). Monti actually won a fifth race with P L Hellcat in the tenth race, but was disqualified and placed second for a Eurorail violation.
Open Water (Jim McNeight, Jr.), who finished second in that tenth race, was placed first and gave trainer Jim McNeight his 1,000th career training victory. McNeight’s training win total has earned $3,495,864 in purse money for his connections. McNeight also has 3,587 driving wins with an additional purse amount of $13,133,205 to go along.
In the Downs’ eleventh race, the heavily favoured Heavenly Way (Ray Fisher, Jr.) was soundly backed in the show pool and finished fourth in a five-horse wire photo. With Heavenly Way being off the board, it prompted eye-popping show payouts of $77.50, $108 and $264.
The drivers’ race just got a little more interesting after Wednesday night. Larry Stalbaum still leads with 122 wins and Ray Fisher, Jr. is second with 119. But on the heels of his big performance, Drew Monti draws into a closer third with 116 wins, only six behind the leader with only four days of racing left in the 2017 meet.
Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Friday night (Dec. 8) with post time set at 6:00 p.m.
(Batavia Downs)