Tioga Downs hosted a leg of New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) for sophomore trotters on Friday, June 5.
A pair of $82,083 divisions for the colts and geldings were won by Read The Room and Silverstein while R Ro was victorious in the lone $172,083 filly division.
Driven by Sarah Svanstedt, Read The Room ($13.36) earned his first NYSS victory in a career-best clocking of 1:53.2 while pinning a neck defeat on tempo-setter Highway Six.
Highway Six (Jeff Gregory) laid down the fractions of :27.1, :57.1 and 1:25 with 7-5 favourite Titans Mischief (Matt Kakaley) unable to progress after popping the pocket turning for home while Read The Room gained ground inside then came flying late to take the win. Highway Six settled for second and Twin B Seven Sins (Niko Karna) rallied from the back of the six-horse field to finish third over Titans Mischief.
The Chapter Seven-Debra Hall colt is trained by Svanstedt's husband Ake and owned by Ake Svanstedt Inc. of Wrightstown, New Jersey, along with Little E Llc of New York City, New York, B Nasstrom Holding Inc. and Nils Munkhaugen of Delray Beach, Florida. The win was his third in a dozen career starts.
The Kakaley-driven favourite in the second split, Silverstein ($2.64), cruised to an easy victory in his NYSS debut, winning in 1:53.3 for trainer Matthew Burkholder.
Silverstein forged three-wide in the early going to make the front into a :27.4 quarter then stole a breather to the half in :57.2. Sevenato (Trond Smedshammer) was first to make a move advancing from the back as Silverstein continued to lead the way to three-quarters in 1:26.4, but that rival posed no threat in the stretch. Silverstein won by more than two lengths over pocket-pursuer AI (Tyler Buter), last year's NYSS freshman colt champion. Seven Grand (Sarah Svanstedt) was third best.
Silverstein, an Oak Grove Trotting Derby elimination winner in his season's debut and a Kentucky Sire Stakes winner last year, now has six career victories from 15 starts while his earnings soared over $600,000. The Chapter Seven-Shining Brightly gelding is owned by Dark Horse Farm of Vienna, Ohio.
R Ro ($7.02) caught the favoured filly Sharp Seven in a career-best 1:53.3 performance in rein to Tyler Buter.
The John Butenschoen trainee settle away sixth from post eight while O'Brien Award winner Storybook Love (Todd Ratchford), starting to her outside, fired to the front into a :27 opening quarter. As the pace slowed to the next marker in :57, last year's NYSS champion Sharp Seven (Jeff Gregory) moved from fifth with R Ro tracking her cover before being left first-over when the favourite cleared to command nearing the three-quarters mark in 1:25. R Ro kept on coming though and wore down Sharp Seven in deep stretch for the victory by three-quarters of a length. Laurens Chapter (Niko Karno) closed well for third.
R Ro, a filly by Chapter Seven out of Barn Girl, is leased by M And L De/Armitage Farm of M And L De/Armitage Farm, Wilmington, Delaware. She picked up her first win of the season following a third-place finish in last week's NYSS leg at Vernon Downs and now has three victories from 18 starts lifetime.
The winners of the $27,778 Excelsior Series male divisions were Chapter Of Life in 1:56.3 for driver Leon Bailey and trainer Andy Gardner and Flex Up in 1:55.3 for Team Miller -- driver Andy and trainer Julie -- while the filly events went to Myths And Legends in 1:56.1 with Matt Kakaley driving for trainer Marcus Melander and Avatrix Blue Chip in 1:56.3 with Tyler Buter in the bike for the Jared Bako stable.
Live harness racing returns to Tioga Downs on Saturday, June 6 with post time at 6:15 p.m.
(Standardbred Canada with files from Tioga Downs; photo of Read The Room winning on June 5)