Despite having two wins and two board hits in his last four starts, Blue Knight was mostly overlooked at the windows in the feature at Plainridge Park on Friday afternoon. But that didn’t stop him from winning the $20,000 Winners-Over Handicap trot in impressive style and with a healthy return for those who did back him.
Ivan Davies left with Blue Knight and drifted into the two-hole behind Mystical Somolli (Drew Campbell) at the quarter in a :27.3 split. Campbell then took the single file field to the half in :56.3 where Chav Hanover (Bruce Ranger) came first over and matched strides with Blue Knight who was still tracking second, up the backstretch.
The top three remained the same until the last turn where Overserved (Shawn Gray) swung three-wide from fourth and got in the mix. At the top of the lane, Mystical Somolli tired and drifted off the pylons and this allowed Blue Knight the shortest route to the finish. Blue Knight then proceeded to out-trot Chav Hanover and Overserved to the line and win by 1-1/4 lengths in 1:55.4.
Sent off at 6-1, Blue Knight returned $14.60 in his third win of the year for owner Richard Mason, Jr. Ivan Davies also trains the winner.
Davies and Mason won back to back races and lit up the tote board in the process after Midnight Craze ($42.40) pulled off a surprise gate to wire win in 1:55, which was also his fastest mile of the year.
And as for Davies alone, he also won the race before Blue Knight with Raybarnz (1:57, $2.40) and that gave him a driving/training natural hat trick and all three wins came in the day’s top races.
Eight-four year-old Massachusetts native Bob Tisbert, who was a resident of the Foxboro Park driver colony for decades and regularly competed against the likes of Jim Doherty, Bill O’Donnell, John Hogan and Bert Beckwith, still has what it takes in the race bike.
On Friday, Tisbert won with Courts N Session who trotted to a gate to wire, 4-1/2 length victory in 1:59.2 which was a new seasonal mark for the winner. Tisbert also trains the nine-year-old gelded son of Conway Court-Ms Pro for owners Alice Szpila and Two Gus Racing.
Tisbert first got in the bike in 1962 and during his 59-year career in the sport has won 2,397 races and $5,675,718 in purses.
Once again there was no unique winning combination ticket purchased on the Wicked Hi-5 Pentafecta on Friday and as a result, when live racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Monday (Aug. 2) at 4 p.m., there will be a $21,074 carryover for that wager in the sixth race.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)