The “Roarin Grand” rolled into Tioga Downs on Thursday night featuring seven divisions of the Tompkins-Geers for
freshman trotters.
Ray Schnittker as always brought his young horses ready to race, and captured one of the divisions for two-year old trotting fillies in track record time of 1:57.4 with Jezzy, a daughter of Credit Winner-Ladylind.
Schnittker surprised the field with an unlikely tactic and backed Jezzy off to sixth as Mike Simons battled Ron Abbott through fractions of :28.4 and :59.2. Schnittker was out of patience as the field reached the half and sent Jezzy three wide from sixth to first in a hurry to grab control of the field, stopping the three quarter mark in 1:27.3. The freshman trotted her third quarter in :27.2 and opened up on the field as she pleased winning by open lengths at the wire to stay an undefeated three for three in 2010.
Jezzy is owned by the partnership of Schnittker, Silva, Gural, and Gewertz all of New York. Jeff Gural, who is also the Chairman of American Racing and Entertainment, was in the winner’s circle following the victory.
“I usually don’t buy pieces of horses that I breed, but Schnittker asked me if I wanted to buy part of her and I am glad I did” said Gural.
Tompkins-Geers division winners for two-year old trotting fillies included Some Girls (1:59.2), No More Credit (1:59.2) and Refuse To Lose (2:00.1).
Division winners for the colts included hometown favourite Typical Newyorker (1:59.4), Pay The Winner (1:59.4) and Ice Machine (2:01).
Tioga Downs continues racing action on Friday, July 16 with a post time of 6:50 p.m. featuring the Tompkins-Geers for two-year old and three-year old pacing fillies.
(Tioga Downs)