Shytown Lightning ($8.00) and driver Anthony Napolitano were able to collar race favourite Crystal Chris in deep stretch and post a neck victory in the $40,000 final of the Girls Night Out Pacing Series Tuesday at the Isle Pompano Park
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The time of 1:52.2 for the one mile pace for mares was a lifetime mark for Shytown Lightning, who is trained by Andy Santeramo for the Joel Benson Stable of Ft. Lauderdale.
Golden Falcon N (David Ingraham) was first on the lead at the start of the sixth race feature with Shytown Lightning grabbing the two-hole garden spot as they sped to a quick opening quarter mile of :26.2.
Golden Falcon N continued to lead the field to the half mile in :54.3 and after that the action started to heat up as Crystal Chris and driver Tom Sells came first-over and started up on the outside against Golden Falcon N. Those two were eye to eye by the three-quarter mile marker in 1:23.2.
Crystal Chris then started to edge in front of Golden Falcon N on the final turn and cleared to the lead as they started down the stretch, but that left enough of an opening for Napolitano to edge out with Shytown Lightning and they started up after Crystal Chris.
With just thirty feet to the wire, Shytown Lightning caught Crystal Chris and passed her by at the finish. Hypnotize (Fern Paquet, Jr.) closed well to be third.
“This mare had outside posts that hurt her chances in the first two legs of the series,” Napolitano said. “She got great cover the entire mile and she showed up tonight.”
It was the second win in nine starts this year for Shytown Lightning, a five-year-old mare by Artsplace from the Jate Lobell mare, Im Whistlebait.
Wednesday's card of harness racing features three $20,000 late closer finals.
The $20,000 Aime Choquette Trotting Series Final is the fifth race and features the lone three-year-old, Whosgoinwhosstayin (post 6), taking on older rivals including divisional winner Super Lotto (post 3).
The sixth race sixth race $20,000 final of the Springboard Pacing Series is headed by Bettor Thantherest (post 6) who is seeking to make a clean sweep of the series having won three of his last four starts.
In the seventh race $20,000 final of the Spring Fling Pacing Series for $8,000 claimers, Docs All Class (post 5) will look to sweep the series but will face still opposition from Streetwise Hall (post 2), who has won three of his last four starts until facing Docs All Class last week.
(Isle Pompano Park)