Big Day For Ducharme At Plainridge

Published: July 24, 2020 08:51 pm EDT

Trainer George Ducharme pushed himself up the statistical ladder on Friday after a four-win performance at Plainridge Park.

First Ducharme and driver Shawn Gray teamed up for a pair of victories with Dramatra ($2.80) who took an overland route to a 1-1/2 length, 1:55.3 lifetime mark win and Without A Warning ($2.80) who jogged home to a six-length victory in 1:55.2.

Dramatra is owned by Ray Campbell, Jr. and Al Ross while Without A Warning is owned by Campbell alone.

Ducharme’s other two training wins came with Wings Of Royalty ($2.20) who led the entire race before drawing off to an 18-length win in 1:53.1 for driver Drew Monti while Greyscale ($3.00) and Nick Graffam closed sharply in the lane to catch Crazy For Luca ($2.10) and Mitchell Cushing at the wire where the two finished in a dead heat.

Wings Of Royalty and Greyscale are both owned by Ray Campbell, Jr., closing out his four-win day while Crazy For Luca is owned by Dale Hein, Tessa Perrin and Royal Roland.

Gray completed his four-bagger behind Tobasco ($8.00) who took a new lifetime mark of 1:55.4 for owner Di Stefano and Son Stable and trainer John Di Stefano and Weekend Getaway ($12.20) who paced sharply in 1:53.4 for owner Jeffrey Kaylor and trainer Joe Therrien.

Dramatra, Without A Warning, Greyscale and Crazy For Luca are all three-year-old Massachusetts-bred trotters who will compete in the Massachusetts Sire Stakes at Plainridge Park later this year. Wings Of Royalty is also a Massachusetts-bred trotter who was the MASS three-year-old trotting colt champion in 2015 and has amassed over $880,000 in lifetime earnings to date.

With the first two weeks of racing now complete at Plainridge, Drew Monti is the leading dash driver with 10 wins followed by Shawn Gray who bolted into second today, and now has nine wins. Tied for third are last year’s driving champion Mitchell Cushing and Nick Graffam who have eight wins apiece.

On the training side, George Ducharme went right to the top with six wins on the strength of his four-win day with Mike Graffam in second place with five tallies. There are three conditioners tied for third with three wins each and they are Scott Rollins, Roger Farrar and Mark Eaton.

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Sunday (July 26) with a special 2:00 p.m. post time and will feature the $250,000 Spirit of Massachusetts Trot and the $100,000 Clara Barton Distaff Pace.

(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)

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