The favourite Diamond Stick Pin stepped up in the final furlong and delivered a 1:52.2 victory in Saturday night’s $9,100 featured sixth race at Vernon Downs
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With Howard Okusko, Jr. doing the steering for his wife, trainer Jennifer Okusko, in the week’s Class A Miracle Mile pace, Diamond Stick Pin worked his way up from fifth in the early going, rallied three-wide around the final turn and closed from second in the stretch drive to eek out a head victory over both Stettin Hanover and the pacesetting Daley Deposit Only. He paid $5.10 to win.
The hard-fought score was the second at the Downs this season and 11th all time for the four-year-old son of Bettors Delight-Silksandiamonds, who lowered his speed mark by three-fifths of a second. Conrad Zurich, Edwin Gold and Wanda Polisseni’s Purple Haze Stables own the career winner of $312,720.
Saturday’s fastest mile was a 1:51.1 performance by Artlight Hanover (Bill Bailey driving for owner and trainer Enio Barrera) in the $7,100 third race that missed the track record for sophomore pacing geldings by just two ticks of the timer. While achieving a new win mark, the bay son of Bettors Delight-Artifact earned his third straight score.
Artlight Hanover is unbeaten in three Vernon ventures since shipping here from Florida’s Pompano Park in late May, and he has improved his lifetime record on each occasion.
(Vernon Downs)