Buffalo Raceway is going to be a busy place on Wednesday, July 8 as the New York Sire Stakes and Excelsior Series will dominate the 15-race program that gets underway at 2:30 p.m. There will be $376,900 USD up for grabs throughout the day.
It will be double barrelled action as the two-year-old pacers will take center stage. The card will feature both the fillies along with the colt and gelding pacers who will battle in both the New York Sire Stakes and Excelsior Series events.
The first 10 races will be all stakes and will bring in some of the top drivers including Jason Bartlett, Mark MacDonald, Matt Kakaley, Tyler Buter, Braxten Boyd, Dan Daley, Kyle Swift, Leon Bailey and Cory Stratton. They will battle Buffalo regulars in Drew Monti and Brett MacDonald, who will try and get their share of the purses.
There will be a pair of $52,500 USD events for the freshman filly pacers in the NYSS, which will have four and five participants each and will take place in the first and seventh races. The male pacers will get their chances for the $54,500 USD purses in the fourth and sixth races and have a pair of seven-horse fields.
The Excelsior Series has four fields of seven for the damsels going for $20,000 USD each while the male pacers have a pair of $20,000 USD brackets.
Following the stakes events in the first 10 races, things don't slow down from there as the 11th will be the $14,700 USD Open Pace for the fillies and mares.
The two NYSS races for the fillies has the two winners from the opening round at Yonkers Raceway back on June 29. The Aaron Lambert trainee Cowboy Candy (So Surreal-Caviart Elena) took her division with a half-length score in 1:56.4 and will be in the first race. Fendilicious (Huntsville-Brooklyn Lilacs) tops the field in the seventh race after notching a length win at Yonkers in 1:57.1 for Deborah Daguet.
The colts and geldings are basically unproven at this point with seven of the 14 entrants getting their initial start. Of the seven that do have a start thus far, a pair have already claimed a victory. Free Agent (American Ideal-Free Ticket) found the winner's circle at first asking with a three-quarter-length victory in 1:55.3 on June 29 at Woodbine Mohawk Park for the Blake MacIntosh stable. Lambert trainee Maries Jet (Roll With Joe-R Marie Hanover) got the photo opportunity with a 1:52.3 winning time at Harrah's Philadelphia on June 26. The pair will go in the fourth and sixth races, respectively.
This is the start of the final two weeks of live racing at Buffalo Raceway for 2026 with closing day set for Saturday, July 18.
(With files from Buffalo Raceway; photo of Cowboy Candy winning at Yonkers Raceway)