Dancin Yankee paced Saratoga Raceway's fastest mile ever as he captured the sixth annual $260,000 Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial on Saturday night.
Dancin Yankee's winning time of 1:48.4 shaved one-fifth of a second off the former track record, which was held by last year's Gerrity Memorial champion Bolt The Duer. It also set a new world record for pacing stallions five years old and up on a half-mile track. Jet Laag and Ponder shared the old mark of 1:49.
The six-year-old son of Yankee Cruiser also surpassed the million-dollar mark in career earnings with the victory.
Leaving from post three, Dancin Yankee and driver Tyler Buter overtook insider Heston Blue Chip (Marcus Miller) during a blazing :25.4 first quarter and never looked back. As he led the field past the half in :53.4 and three-quarters in 1:21, Foiled Again (Matt Kakaley) advanced first over from third with P H Supercam (Jason Bartlett) following his cover. With Foiled Again looming, Dancin Yankee kicked clear around the final turn and opened up multiple lengths down the stretch for his 15th win of the season. Heston Blue Chip finished second over Foiled Again.
Dancin Yankee is trained by Amber Buter and owned by Baron Racing Stable of Horsham, Pennsylvania and Richard Lombardo of Solon, Ohio.
Sent postward as the 4-5 favourite, Dancin Yankee paid $3.90 to win.
In addition to the Gerrity, Saratoga hosted the New York Sire Stakes for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings with Winds Of Change (1:51.3), Stay Up Late (1:52.3) and Natural Leda (1:52.4) coming away with victories in their respective $59,000-plus divisions. Mark MacDonald was aboard Stay Up Late for trainer Casie Coleman and the Ontario-based West Wins Stable while Brett Miller drove both Winds Of Change and Natural Leda.
Sunfire Blue Chip and Jason Bartlett won the $25,000 Open Handicap Pace by four lengths in 1:50.3 while Dedis Dragon was victorious in the $20,000 Junior Open Handicap in 1:53.2 with Matt Kakaley at the lines.