Palm Beach Chick and Barn Babe, both owned by local connections, won the first two New York Sire Stakes, each worth $35,146, at Buffalo Raceway Sunday afternoon over a sloppy track. The four Sire Stakes races were for three-year-old trotting fillies.
In the first division, race two, Palm Beach Chic (Conway Hall-Back On Track) left sharply from post seven with regular driver Jeff Gregory in the sulky and collared second-place finisher Amor Deo (Trond Smedshammer) just past the quarter-pole en route to 3-1/2 length victory in 2:01.3.
The win was the fourth in 14 attempts for Palm Beach Chic ($26), who is trained by Linda Toscano for owners Jeff Gregory and Buffalo Raceway’s President Bill Richardson.
“I was just hoping to get around the turns OK,” said Gregory. “I really didn’t have to worry, because she was just perfect the whole mile.”
In race 5, Barn Babe’s victory was much closer, just a nose, over second-place finisher Proclaiming April (Trond Smedshammer) in 2:00.3. Barn Babe ($3.70), driven by reinsman John Cummings Jr., cut all the fractions in the race of :31.1, 1:00.4, and 1:31.2.
“When [Jim] Morrill’s horse [Hall La La] broke, it kind of set up perfect for me,” said Cummings. "I was a little worried about the three horse [Proclaiming April] on my back, but my filly really dug in.”
Steven Pratt owns and trains Barn Babe (Cash Hall-My Babys Momma) with Nancy E Pratt of Corfu, New York. The win was Barn Babe’s eighth lifetime and puts her earnings at $170,341.
The other two Sire Stakes winners were Wygant Lady (Credit Winner-Rose Street Angel) in 2:00.2 with Cat Manzi at the controls and Lola De Vie (Credit Winner-Fan Favourite) in 2:02.2 with Jim Morrill Jr. in the bike.
(With files from Buffalo Raceway)