Fresh from his victory on seasonal debut at Harrah's Hoosier Park last week, San Patricio tightened his screws against older competition at Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel on Tuesday, June 2 with a powerful rally over the top to win the $23,611 featured optional-claiming trot.
Driver Joey Putnam floated San Patricio away sixth while Prince Of Honor (Brandon Bates) contested with Youngblood (Archie Buford) for the lead to a :27.2 first quarter. Prince Of Honor cleared to control but soon faced a challenge from 8-5 favourite International Law (Atlee Bender), who brushed first-over approaching a :55.3 half, and International Law eventually cleared to the lead moving through the second turn.
International Law slowed the tempo up the backstretch, at which point Putnam sent San Patricio from the backfield with a three-wide charge to three-quarters in 1:25.2. San Patricio smoothly slid to the lead spinning for home and scooted away for a 2-3/4-length win over International Law in 1:54.1. Burningforyourlove (Stephane Guelpa) closed from last for third.
A gelding by Swan For All-Kaikoura, San Patricio won his seventh race from 10 career starts and has now earned $191,267. Tyler Butenschoen trains him for Tony Holmes, Michael Holmes, June Zent and Timothy Thornton. He paid $7.32 to win.
Another exciting win wrapped the week at Oak Grove. Trainer/driver Stephen White returned to the Oak Grove winner's circle with his 12-year-old Unite Ace gelding Ideal Ace, who had not won in over two years, with a confident first-over grind to score at odds of 6-1 in a $13,889 conditioned pace to close Tuesday's card. The win pushed the veteran pacer over $300,000 in career earnings and was his first visit to the winner's circle since posting a 1:55.4 victory at Oak Grove back in June of 2024.
Oak Grove continued showing steady gains in handle year-over-year with this week's Monday and Tuesday cards. Handle year-over-year on the Monday card was up 5.5 per cent and up 26.3 per cent on the Tuesday card. Through 11 weeks of racing, handle at Oak Grove remains up 26.4 per cent year over year and up 20 per cent when exempting the extra day of racing for the inaugural Oak Grove Trotting Derby.
Live harness racing resumes at Oak Grove on Monday, June 8. First-race post time is 1:10 p.m. (CDT).
(With files from Oak Grove)