Givenupdreaming shattered the track record at Bangor Raceway with a dominating five and three-quarter length victory in the 23rd edition of the $22,500 Paul Bunyan Invitational Pace on Friday evening (July 22).
Sent off the gate from post five by Stephane Bouchard, Givenupdreaming battled past A Sweet Ride and Eddie Davis Jr., who left from post four, into a :27.2 opening panel. Givenupdreaming continued to lead the way through middle splits of :55.3 and 1:23.2 before drawing away from his competition to stop the clock in 1:51.2. The five-year-old son of If I Can Dream lowered the Bangor track record by one second and one-fifth.
Escape The News and Ron Cushing launched first over from third approaching three-quarters to finish in second-place and Bet You followed in third for driver Heath Campbell. Race Me Villa, A Sweet Ride, Northern Companion, and Governor's Plate champion YS Lotus completed the finish order.
Heidi Rohr trains the winner for Maine owner Marc Reynolds and partners Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. The victory was the seventh from 18 starts this year for Givenupdreaming, who had taken a mark of 1:49.3 two starts ago in an Open event at Plainridge. The 4-5 race favourite paid $3.60 to win.