Five-year-old mare Bertos Angel went to the top and never looked back as she tackled a field of Buffalo Raceway's top male trotters on Friday evening
.
Bertos Angel ($3.30) clocked a 2:00.4 season's best victory in the featured $10,000 Open Trot for owner Scott D. Woogen of Mechanicsville, Virginia. It was the second win in three attempts this year for the Ken Warkentin-Spark Of Abbey mare.
Reinsman Kevin Cummings put the former Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots champion right on the lead and the prohibitive favourite in the race set all the fractions, :30.3, 1:01.1, and 1:31.1. A :29.3 last quarter-mile put the winner one and a quarter lengths ahead of second place finisher Hello Carlo (Jack Flanigen) at the wire. Last week’s Open winner, Perfect Man (Dave McNeight III), came on to show.
“She really didn’t like last week’s sloppy track,” said Cummings of the mare's third place showing in her previous outing. “The track tonight was much better and she raced really good. She’s a special mare to be able to compete with the boys at this level.”
The $5,000 share of the winning purse put the Lisa Lederhouse trainee's season bankroll at $11,200, and $208,110 lifetime.
(With files from Buffalo Raceway)