Top-level pacer Alex Having Fun is off to a fast and lucrative start to his 2024 season and he added another exclamation point to that resume on Monday, May 20 when he captured the $27,397 pacing feature at Plainridge Park for the second week in a row while lowering his lifetime mark for the second time in seven days.
Bruce Ranger took Alex Having Fun off the gate in the Open Pace and settled in fifth while Skyway Victor (Kevin Switzer Jr.) skated through quick quarters of :26.2 and :55.2. At that point, Alex Having Fun was already out and rolling, first-up in the breeze and he got to within a length of Skyway Victor at three-quarters despite the wicked :26.4 panel posted by the leader. After they spun through the final bend and turned for home, Alex Having Fun forged ahead of Skyway Victor and then held off a pair of late charges from The Wild Card (Nick Graffam) and Always A Miki (Matty Athearn) to win by a length in 1:50. The time lowered the winner's career best by three-fifths of a second.
Owned and trained by Kimberly Vafiades, Alex Having Fun ($18.20) has won three of his last four starts. The seven-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven gelding went over the $300,000 earnings mark with his 29th career win.
Later in a $23,288 conditioned undercard pace, Heiniken Bythebay (Kevin Switzer Jr.) was forced three-wide through the first turn and to the :26.3 quarter by Torrid Saint A (Matty Athearn) and Little Willy (Brett Beckwith) before he could take the lead in front of the stands. Once he got there, Heiniken Bythebay just kept rolling and stopped the clock in :55.2 and 1:22.3 while passing the next two stations. The leader pulled away by three lengths as he worked his way through the last turn, and entered the stretch looking like a winner. But Little Willy, who had drafted second the whole mile, made one last lunge and closed furiously in deep stretch. However, despite his best effort, he came up one-half length short to Heiniken Bythebay, who won in 1:50.2 snd set a new lifetime mark.
Heiniken Bythebay ($3), a five-year-old Southwind Lynx gelding with 25 careers wins and nearly half a million dollars in the bank, is owned by KDK Standardbreds and trained by Kevin Switzer.
Nick Graffam led all drivers on Monday with three wins while trainer Jimmy Nickerson bested his fellow conditioners with a double on the card.
Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Tuesday, May 21 with post time at 4 p.m. and the card will feature a $4,356 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 in race six.
(With files from Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)