Veteran pacer Shoobee Doo A reached a career milestone while kicking off a natural hat trick for trainer Courtney Wright during a rain-drenched Friday afternoon on March 20 at Buffalo Raceway.
Wright had three consecutive scores with wins in races six, seven and eight to lead all trainers during the nine-race program.
Her first was in a $11,918 conditioned optional claiming pace as Shoobee Doo A ($2.44) led wire-to-wire in 1:57.4 over the sloppy track to record his 50th career win with Drew Monti driving. The popular winner set steady fractions of :30 and 1:00.2 before keeping challenger Trente Deo (Denny Bucceri) at bay through three-quarters in 1:29.1 and drawing off by 2-3/4 lengths. Trente Deo settled for second and Santana Beach (Brett MacDonald) rounded out the top three.
Shoobee Doo A, who came to North America in 2021, was acquired by 716 Standardbreds LLC of Alden, New York and joined the Wright stable this year. The Shoobees Place-Lavish Art gelding has launched his 11-year-old comeback campaign with back-to-back wins after going zero-for-three in 2025. A career winner of more than $600,000, his best season to date was in 2024 when he won 14 races and topped $200,000 in earnings.
Wright's other successful starters on Friday were the six-year-old trotter Bars Open ($4.42) in 2:03 with Brett MacDonald aboard and seven-year-old pacer Hunt For Cash ($19.32) in 1:59 with Ray Fisher Jr. in the bike. Both, picking up their first victories of the season off pocket trips, are owned by Leslie Shafer of Batavia, New York.
Coming off a career-year in 2025 when she won 39 races and more than $354,000, the West Seneca, New York trainer now has 215 career wins and more than $1.6 million in purse earnings.
Confident ($9.62) lived up to his name in the stretch drive of the day's feature, a $16,438 conditioned trot, as he was able to scratch out a nose victory over Munk for driver Drew Monti and trainer Ferris Hazlett.
Chapter Twelve (Kevin Cummings), the odds-on favourite, took command in the early going, notching splits of :30.1 and 1:00.4 to the half. But he called it a day midway down the backstretch as the closers began to make their moves.
Celtics Whitesox (Kyle Cummings) was first-over with Munk following his cover when hitting the three-quarter marker in 1:30.3. Confident, in the meantime, rolled widest of all heading down the lane for Drew Monti and squared off with the sandwiched Munk and lightning-lane riding Celtics Whitesox. It was a ding-dong battle to the finish line with Confident nudging ahead in the final strides for the 2:00.4 victory while Munk had to settle for a hard-fought second-place finish and Celtics Whitesox was third.
Owned by Kevin and Shannon Rowe of Rochester, New York, the four-year-old Confident (Tactical Landing-Anikadabra) found the winner's circle for the first time this year in two attempts. The victory jumped his earnings to $73,165 in his brief career spanning 25 races.
Drew Monti and Brett MacDonald each had three driving victories on the program with David McNeight III collecting two.
Racing will return to Buffalo Raceway on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. with an 11-race program. The card will feature the $15,500 USD Open Pace and $15,500 USD Open Trot, which will go off as the seventh and ninth races, respectively. There's a $1,330 carryover in the Pick 5, which begins in the second race.
(Standardbred Canada with files from Buffalo Raceway)