After matching his lifetime mark in an April win at the Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, Con Air Hall had not been able to come close to that performance in the months since. But that all changed on Thursday when the six-year-old got his game back on track and romped in the $10,000 conditioned trotting feature at Plainridge Park.
Con Air Hall (Mitchell Cushing) dropped in second behind Count On Rosie (Todd O’Dea) and smartly sat there until the five-eighths pole when Cushing pulled right leather and popped the pocket. Now under a full head of steam, Con Air Hall marched right by Count On Rosie and slid back to the pylons while opening up a two-length advantage past the three-quarters in 1:27.1.
As the race swept around the last turn Count On Rosie faded, Spark A Dream (Shawn Gray) made a break and the only horse close enough with a shot was Hs Marcia (Drew Campbell) who tried her best to pursue but came up short as Con Air Hall was on cruise control and trotted to the wire on top by three in 1:56.4 over the sloppy-rated track.
It was the second win of the year for Con Air Hall ($11.20) who is owned by Mark Ford and trained by Elisha Lafreniere.
Mitchell Cushing remains the hottest driver on the grounds at Plainridge over this past week. After registering a Grand Slam on Monday, Cushing came right back and won four more races during Thursday afternoon. Besides winning the feature with Con Air Hall, Cushing also had his picture taken with Neon Sky N (1:53, $10.00), Cruiserwillwin (1:54.3, $18.20) and Beverly Hill Billy (1:55.3, $7.60).
Drivers Shawn Gray and Drew Campbell each doubled on the card and as a result, the driving leader board has gotten crowded at the top. Gray is the current pacesetter with 57 wins, Cushing is second with 50 and Campbell is third with 37.
There was a huge carry over pool in the Wicked-Hi 5 Pentafecta wager today and it was hit in the ninth race. The winning combination of 3-6-7-4-1 returned a whopping $18,923.24 for a 20-cent bet.
Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Friday with an 11-race, trot-heavy card featuring the $14,000 Winners-Over Handicap for the diagonal gaited. Post time for the first race is 4 p.m.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)