Waiting On A Woman ($18.60) and Hudson Phil ($3.60) captured their respective co-featured $8,500 Open events on the 13-race Sunday afternoon (July 12) program at Saratoga Casino Hotel.
Waiting On A Woman, who last recorded a Saratoga Open win in March 2015, has competed at numerous tracks throughout the Northeast for trainer Kyle Spagnola since that time. After a third-place finish in last week's featured trot, Waiting On A Woman marched out to the early lead in line to Phil Fluet and controlled a leisurely :59.2 first half before cruising through a :55.4 second half and drawing away to defeat last week's winner and runner-up — Gemologist (Jordan Derue) and Volare (Billy Dobson) — by more than five lengths in 1:55.1.
Waiting On A Woman, a 12-year-old gelded son of Northern Bailey, is owned by Mike Polansky.
In the Open Pace, Hudson Phil finally shook a case of "second-itis" and recorded a top-level win. After beginning the season with three straight second-place finishes, Hudson Phil was placed on the front by Shawn Gray and held off a late charge from Deetzy (Jay Randall) to win in 1:53.3. Crockets Cullen N (Larry Stalbaum), a winner of two straight Opens, went a big mile before having to settle for third.
Jackie Greene trains the five-year-old Shanghai Phil gelding for the Kellogg Racing Stables.
Live racing at Saratoga resumes on Wednesday (July 15) at 12 noon. There will be a $2,855 carryover in the Pick-5, which begins in the afternoon's first race.
(with files from Saratoga Casino Hotel)