Wednesday’s matinee program at Saratoga Casino Hotel featured a trio of $9,000 events for New York-sired trotters, and trainer-driver Phil Fluet thrived for the second time in as many weeks.
Last week, Fluet recorded a win and a couple of second-place finishes with his trainees, but on Wednesday he notched a pair of winners.
Lady Macbeth, pictured victorious at Saratoga Casino Hotel on Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Lady Macbeth (by Deweycheatumnhowe) was a repeat winner, as she overcame a difficult trip to go back-to-back. Lady Macbeth was caught four-wide around the final turn, but came charging hard to get past her rivals and stop the timer in 2:00.4. Her stablemate Notmeitsyou (Chapter Seven) has been a picture of consistency since coming to Saratoga last year, and on Wednesday kept his long streak of finishing first or second, as he parlayed his pocket ride into a 2:00.2 score for Fluet. Lady Macbeth was her race’s 7-5 betting favourite while Notmeitsyou’s victory came while sent out at odds of 2-5.
The Maureen Salino-trained Bonamassa (Muscle Mass) cruised to a wire-to-wire score in the final of the three co-features, as the four-year-old mare prevailed in 1:59.4, the fastest time of the co-featured trotting races on the card. Brett Crawford piloted Bonamassa to her second win in three starts on the young season.
Live racing continues on Thursday afternoon at Saratoga with a Pick Five guarantee of $5,000 and a $25,000 guarantee to the triple pool in Race 5. First post time for the matinee is set for 12:00 p.m.
(Saratoga Casino Hotel)