After having wins snatched from him in his last two tries at the class, Great Seats returned from a stint in the Kentucky Sire Stakes to go a no-holds-barred 1:51.4 mile in the featured $20,548 conditioned pace at Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel on Tuesday, May 14.
Starting from post one, Great Seats (Wyatt Avenatti) pushed to protect position but yielded through the first turn to 4-5 Mistertenahkey (Marvin Luna) and then Mister Hercules (Chad Bell) moving to a :26.1 first quarter. Mister Hercules took over the lead into the stretch first time, where Avenatti decided to bolt Great Seats out of third and to the top before clicking by a :55.2 half.
Great Seats's brush to the lead forced Luna into a disadvantageous spot with Mistertenahkey. Luna had to move first over into the backstretch and march up towards Great Seats, and in his pursuit drew to near equal terms by three-quarters in 1:23.3. But the overland route took its toll on Mistertenahkey spinning for home just as Great Seats flipped to another gear. Great Seats spurted upon straightening for the beam to a widening four-length victory over JD Camden GB (Devon Tharps), who gave chase in second. Mistertenahkey settled for third and Foalovit (Atlee Bender) closed for fourth.
A four-year-old gelding by Sweet Lou, Great Seats won his seventh race from 40 starts and has now banked $68,480 for Wyatt and Lane Avenatti. David Avenatti trains the $7.72 winner.
Live harness racing resumes at Oak Grove on Monday, May 20 at 3 p.m. (CDT). Free program pages for every race day, courtesy of TrackMaster, are available on the Oak Grove Racing website.
(Oak Grove)