The dominating Waltrip Hanover surged to his sixth straight score with a 1:51.4 pacing performance in Saturday night’s $9,000 featured eighth event at Vernon Downs
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With regular reinsman Howard Okusko, Jr. in Buffalo for New York Sires Stakes action, Leon Bailey did the catch-driving for the meet’s top trainer, Jessica Okusko, in the week’s Open-1 handicap, and capably steered the crowd favourite ($3.00) to a one-length triumph over last week’s Open winner Lincoln Parke.
Waltrip Hanover’s time was just one-fifth of a second off the fastest-mile-of-the-meet honour he shares with fellow side-wheeler If I Can Dream. The win, which gave Okusko a double on the evening and raised her total tally count to 42 at the half-way mark of the track’s 90-card campaign, was the four-year-old speedster’s fifth straight locally, giving him a one victory edge over stablemate Tip The Tide for the longest winning streak of Vernon’s 56th campaign.
Bailey is this season’s leading provisional driver at the Downs with 11 tallies.
Sal Vullo’s pacer Whitaker Blue Chip (Chris Lems at the controls) was Okusko’s other winner during Saturday’s nine-race card, scoring in 1:53.4 to record his fourth first-place finish of 2009.
A And Gs Winner’s 1:52.1 triumph in Saturday’s $7,000 sixth session, the Open-2 handicap pace, was his third in a row and sixth at the meet, tying him with the pacing mare My Girl Lora for most equine victories through July 25. Chuck Connor, Jr., sitting in for trainer Nicholas Gibides and owner Dorothy Gibides, directed the vastly improved six-year-old to his seventh season’s score and a new win record.
Lems also won with the Triple C Stable’s pacer Khakis Feather in 1:54.3, giving the promising young horseman his 10th double at the Downs this year, and seven scores during the week. He is currently third in races won with 48.
Driver Jimmy Whittemore, presently second on Vernon’s dash-winning chart with 55 tallies, won with the pacers Stettin Hanover (1:53.2) and Escape Pass to record his 13th two-win outing at the meet, and tie dash-leader Howard Okusko, Jr. at 13 for top honours in this department.
Vernon will present its final Family Night program of the year at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Backstretch barn tours will begin one hour earlier from in front of the clubhouse entrance.
(Vernon Downs)