A trio of $12,000 condition races that included one pace and two trots, headlined the card at Plainridge Park on Thursday afternoon and when the dust had settled, two of them provided some handsome returns.
In the pacing edition, Legal Power (Shawn Gray) took an early lead and dictated the entire mile. After going :27, :55.4 and 1:23.4 without anyone getting closer than a length, Gray loose-lined Legal Power at the head of the lane and he paced away with no further encouragement to score an easy two-length win in 1:52.4, equalling his lifetime mark.
Legal Power ($3.40) claimed his seventh career victory for owners Dandy Farms Racing and FT Racing Stable. Jimmy Nickerson is the trainer.
On the trotting side, HS Marcia (Drew Campbell) took the lead from Southwind Rich (Jim Hardy) before allowing that one to retake, and then sat the pocket trip the rest of the way. At the head of the stretch Campbell pulled HS Marcia and out-legged Southwind Rich to the wire while holding off a late charge from Tobasco (Joe Di Stefano) to win in 1:58.3.
HS Marcia ($15.40) is owned by Emery Pelletier and is trained by Randy Bickmore.
Then in the book-end trot the lightly regarded Aces And Eighths (Wally Watson) got away last by 13-lengths and eventually pulled third-over in a dull outer flow at the half before tipping three-deep at the top of the final bend where he was full of trot and then blew by the field in deep stretch to win by two-lengths in 1:57.
The 17-1 Aces And Eights returned $36.20 for owner Jeffrey Epstein and triggered a 1-3-6 Trifecta that paid $3,264.60. Jamie Gerard does the conditioning.
Drew Campbell had the driving Grand Slam on Thursday. Besides scoring with the aforementioned Hs Marcia, Campbell also won with GW Show Faith (1:52.4, $4.20), Kitty Russel (1:55, $21.20) and Shady Secret A (1:54.2, $7.20).
The Wicked Hi-5 Pentafecta which had not been hit in recent days and as a result, produced a hefty carryover pool was claimed today in the sixth race when one lucky bettor had the 1-5-3-2-9 combination and won $8,670.12.
Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Friday with post time at 4 p.m.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)