Cumberland Raceway gets back to business on Friday, May 8 with a trotting rivalry that has shown no signs of slowing down as Big Al M and Brutalizer are set to face off in the $7,000 USD Winners Over Handicap Trot.
Both horses own a two-win record this season and have faced each other on multiple occasions since mid-March. They also exchanged blows in several bouts during November and December at the iconic Southern Maine oval.
The morning-line favourite from post seven is Big Al M (2-1, Zach Vickerson), who got stung three-wide into a :28.3 opening panel last week, cut the rest of the fractions and got overtaken by his nemesis just before the line. The more seasoned of the two trotting titans at eight years old, Big Al M has 34 lifetime wins and $575,704 in earnings in 107 starts. The son of Anders Bluestone-Bringing Up Lindy, trained by Vickerson, is two-for-four this year.
Brutalizer, who will score from post six for Andy Harrington, is listed at 5-2 and carries the swagger of his last victory into the clash. He has tallied 12 career decisions and $197,225 in prize money from 70 appearances. A model of consistency, the five-year-old son of Alarm Detector-Princess Serena has not been worse than third in his last 16 starts. The Sara Harrington trainee has won twice in five seasonal outings.
Former Maine Sire Stakes champion trotting mare Pembroke Breeze will make her five-year-old bow for the driver-trainer team of Heath Campbell and Valerie Grondin. A winner of $266,954 lifetime with 19 wins in 44 starts, she loves the Cumberland oval and won by 7-1/2 lengths in 1:58 her last time Downeast. She is listed at 7-2 from post four.
The exotic wagering action starts with a Pick-5 in the opener, and the the Pick-4 is set for the last four races on the program (Races 9-12). The Pick-3 begins in Race 10, and all boast a low 16 per cent takeout. In addition, the 20-cent Superfecta is available in Races 4, 6 and 8, along with a Pentafecta in Races 5 and 12.
Racing continues on Saturday with a 10-race program, the second half of the third of six weekends of Friday-Saturday racing, which runs through the month of May. The calendar then reverts back to Saturday-Sunday cards for the month of June.
First post is always 12:15 p.m. during the extended pari-mutuel meeting, which runs through Aug. 2.
(With files from First Tracks Cumberland)