A Penny Earned was victorious in the featured $10,000 Open Trot on Saturday night at Vernon Downs. However, the gelding certainly did not have an easy time of it.
A Penny Earned (Chris Lems) sat just behind the leader, Mr Web Page (Roman Lopez), through the opening quarter of :28.3. Just past the quarter-mile mark, A Penny Earned rolled right past that leader and assumed control himself. He continued to lead through a half-mile in :58.2 and three-quarters in 1:27. Once the field made the stretch, though, there were plenty of challengers for A Penny Earned to hold off. My Revenuer (Truman Gale) had the benefit of a first-over trip up the backstretch, but was never able to surpass the leader in the stretch and had to settle for second. War Hero (Howard Okusko Jr.) followed the cover of My Revenuer to get up into contention, but the best he could do was a third-place finish. A Penny Earned finished the mile in 1:55.1 for the win.
He is owned by Alfred Ross, George Ducharme and Natalia Oliva of Massachusetts and Paul Fontaine of Rhode Island. Ducharme is also the trainer of A Penny Earned (Conway Hall-Penny Dream), who earned his third win of the season at Vernon Downs.
The complete order of finish was: A Penny Earned, My Revenuer, War Hero, Mr Web Page, Naughty Not Nice, Pollux Blue Chip, and Evil Urges.
Live racing will resume on Sunday at Vernon Downs with a special 11-race program. The featured event on Sunday is the $8,000 eighth race, with Tell Us More installed as the 2-1 morning-line favourite. He comes to Vernon Downs after winning twice in seven starts at The Meadowlands since the beginning of May. Post time on Sunday afternoon is 1:15 p.m.
(Vernon Downs)