Having secured a bye for the Meadowlands Pace with his runner-up performance in Mohawk Racetrack's $1 million North America Cup on June 15, Twilight Bonfire's connections opted to race the sophomore colt in the $30,000 Invitational at Scioto Downs on Saturday night in preparation for his next big test.
Meet leading driver Tony Hall sent the seventh race's inside starter Twilight Bonfire ($3.60) from third to first after the :26.1 opening quarter and carved out middle splits of :54 and 1:22.1 en route to a 1:50.4 victory against a field of older horses. Early leader Carols Comet and Ronnie Wrenn Jr. finished one and a quarter lengths behind in second and a from-last I Found My Beach, driven by Dan Noble, rounded out the top three finishers over two lengths back.
Ohio-based Danny Collins trains the son of The Panderosa for Pennsylvania owner/breeder Robert Key. With two wins and two seconds in five sophomore outings, Twilight Bonfire has banked $324,416 in purses so far this year.
Twilight Bonfire drew post four for next weekend's $635,750 Meadowlands Pace after an elimination was contested Saturday night at Meadowlands Racetrack to determine the rest of the field.
North America Cup and Max C. Hempt Memorial Pace winner Captaintreacherous and his stablemate Wake Up Peter, who finished third in the Cup, also received byes. Wake Up Peter used a 1:50 qualifying mile at The Meadowlands earlier in the day as his Pace tightener.