Do Mischief proved to be all kinds of trouble for his opponents in the $21,000 Open Handicap Pace on Saturday, July 4 at Buffalo Raceway as he reached up late to nail Total Stranger in the final strides for the victory.
Total Stranger (Kevin Cummings) set the fractions of :27.3, :55.2 and 1:24.2, with Marvellous Mac A (Drew Monti) pressing first-over as Do Mischief (Brett MacDonald) cruised along patiently in the pocket. The leader and pocket-sitter broke away as a tandem heading around the final turn as the others dropped out of contention. In the stretch, Total Stranger tried desperately to hang onto the lead, but Do Mischief continued to grind and stuck a head in front at the wire to prevail in 1:53. Shoobee Doo A (Ray Fisher Jr.) took third.
Do Mischief, a five-year-old son of Sweet Lou-Somesleazetoplease, is trained by David Russo for Caeleo Enterprises LLC and Brad Conschafter. The victory was the sixth in 22 attempts on the season for Do Mischief, who is now 18-for-70 lifetime with $196,914 in earnings. He paid $3.10 to win.
In the $21,000 Open Handicap Trot, the favoured Crazy Ritz ($4.12) worked the give-and-go early to cut the mile for driver James McNeight Jr.
El Toro Loco (Kevin Cummings) briefly took the lead from post four, but Crazy Ritz wanted no part of the pocket trip and quickly zipped back to the top. With fractions of :28.3, :58.1 and 1:27.2 in the books, Crazy Ritz played catch-me-if-you-can down the stretch, and the pocket-sitting El Toro Loco could only narrow the gap to three-quarters of a length as the pacesetter completed the mile in 1:56.2. Dougadougadew (Kyle Cummings) finished third.
Crazy Ritz scored his fourth win of the year in 15 starts, and his first since moving to the barn of Samuel Dilcher earlier this month for owner James Palladino. The six-year-old Crazy Wow-Bubblesnritz stallion has 23 victories and $369,380 in earnings from 98 career starts.
Brett MacDonald and Kevin Cummings each had driving triples on the 12-race card card with Monti, James McNeight Jr. and David McNeight III getting two each. Russo and Dilcher each posted training doubles.
There's plenty of stakes action scheduled on Wednesday when racing returns to Buffalo with a 15-race program starting at 2:30 p.m. The first 10 events will feature either New York Sire Stakes action or Excelsior Series races for two-year-old pacers of each sex.
(With files from Buffalo Raceway)