Tioga Downs held a special July 4th racing program on Wednesday night in front of more than 3,500 patrons, and featured four divisions of the King Of The $4,000 Claiming Pacing Series.
Blue Boy (Mike Merton) posted the fastest clocking of the four divisions winning gate-to-wire in 1:53.1 over Seton Hall. The seven-year-old classy son of Real Artist–Millie Blue cut through fractions of :26.4, :56.1, and 1:24.2 before opening up on the field with a final panel of :28.4. Joe Agostino trains Blue Boy for Ian Fromowitz of Richmond Hill, Ont.
Fox Valley Roper (Kyle Di Benedetto) captured the second division of the two-week pacing series, scoring his fourth straight win at Tioga Downs in 1:53.2 with Handsome Hussy second. The 12-year-old son of Sportsmaster–Put The Boots won for the sixth time in 13 seasonal outings and the time established a new lifetime mark in his 150th career start.
Shakey Slim (Corey Braden) won his division by a length and a half over Ajs Poppop in 1:54.2 and Holy Buck (Fern Paquet Jr.) prevailed by half a length over Maximum Viking in 1:54.
The top two finishers in each division along with one third place finisher (drawn by lot) will come back on Friday, July 13th for a $10,000 final.
Tioga Downs continues live racing on Friday, July 6th at 6:50 p.m.
(With files from Tioga Downs)