Illinois-conceived and foaled trotters were the featured attraction on Sunday, July 15 at Balmoral Park, as a field of six diagonally-gaited three-year-old colts and geldings met in the $12,000 Brandenburg Stakes.
After having failed to find the winner’s circle in his first five starts of the year, Vaporstar finally picked up his first win as a sophomore, as he went wire-to-wire for a one and three-quarter-length victory and stopped the clock in a career best of 1:55.1.
Sent right to the top from the outside post by driver Dave Magee, the gelded son of Vaporize carved out splits of :28.3, :57.2 and 1:26.1.
With plenty in reserve, the Mike Brink trainee coasted home with a 29-second final quarter to score for the fourth time in 15 career starts. Power Net Gram (driven by Todd Warren) sat in the pocket the entire way to score the place money. Recollection (Kyle Wilfong) used a ground-saving trip to grab the show dough.
Sent off as the 4-5 favourite by the betting public, Vaporstar returned $3.60, $2.20 and $2.40.
(Balmoral)