Davey Day Trader ($6) strutted his stuff for his new barn at Buffalo Raceway on Saturday, May 3 as he squashed a field of Open pacers by six lengths in a lifetime-best 1:54, taking the afternoon's $20,139 feature.
After being claimed for $22,917 back on April 19 by James Costa and Peter Kibler and joining the David McNeight Jr. stable, the new connections watched Davey Day Trader claim third place in his initial start for them in the Open Pace on April 26. But it was a different story with this outing.
Starting from the two post, Davey Day Trader and driver David McNeight III managed to secure the early advantage and were able to park last week's winner, Panettone Hanover, along the way. With snappy fractions of :27.3 and :55.5 in the books over the sloppy track, Panettone Hanover (Kyle Cummings) started to retreat while Davey Day Trader picked up the pace, hitting the three-quarter marker in 1:25. With a five-length lead at the top of the stretch, Davey Day Trader just stayed on task and romped to the six-length win. Stranger Things (Kevin Cummings) won the battle for place while Panettone Hanover managed to hold on for show honours.
The five-year-old Davey Day Trader (Huntsville-Gigi Deo) has now won three times in five starts this year. The victory was his 15th lifetime and pushed his career earnings to $144,077.
In a $17,361 pace, the P.E.I bred five-year-old JJ Landon ($5.10) made it three straight wire-to-wire victories with a hard fought neck decision over Soul Assassin (Drew Monti) in 1:55. Joseph Chindano Jr. drove the winning Tobago Cays-J J Mistress gelding for trainer Shawn McDonough and owners Rocco Stebbins and Benjamin Ortiz.
Joseph Chindano Jr. and Kyle Cummings had driving triples on the day with Kevin Cummings and David McNeight III each getting a pair. Tammy Cummings and Samuel Smith had two training victories apiece.
Racing will resume on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. with a 12-race card.
(With files from Buffalo Raceway)