Reigning New York Sires Stakes champion Coraggioso was fast and fit in his season’s debut on Friday night, capturing Vernon Downs' $10,000 Open Handicap Trot and setting a track record for four-year-old trotting horses.
Trainer Gates Brunet was at the controls in the week’s Open test as favoured Coraggioso, winner of the NYSS 2012 title test for three-year-old colt trotters, got cover early in Friday’s mile contest. The quick-striding son of Conway Hall-Electra Hanover rallied from third in the final quarter (authoring a :28.3 final fraction) to defeat the front-striding A Penny Earned by a head in a career-best 1:53.4, lowering the track’s former standard for his class (set by Winning Mister in 2010) by one tick of the timer. The time of the mile also established a season’s fastest trotting mark at the central New York seven-eighths-mile oval.
Friday’s fantastic performance earned the career-winner of more than $511,400 his 12th lifetime victory for owners Joseph Spadaro and Tom J. Durkin, the famed announcer for the New York Racing Association.
Friday’s fastest mile was a 1:52.3 victory by the pacer Windows Online, who became a two-time winner at the seven-night meet with a bold-going effort in the evening’s seventh session. It was one of three tallies during the 12-race program for defending driving champ and current leader Rick Plano. He also finished first with Ulay Boko (1:55.2) in the sixth session and To Tell The Truth (1:53) in race 10. His wife, Maryann, owns the latter two standardbreds.
Driver John MacDonald was also a multiple winner during Friday’s format, posting a pair of first-place finishes.
(Vernon Downs)