There were two mares against the boys in the $10,000 Open Handicap trotting feature at Batavia Downs on Friday night (August 19) and 'girl power' prevailed as Serendipitious, who was overlooked at 9-1, pulled out a wire-to-wire victory in a lifetime-best time of 1:57.1.
Weekly leaver Lutetium (Todd Cummings) made a break off the gate, which handed Serendipitious (Ray Fisher Jr.) the lead and with it, the mare took the field in post-position order to the half in :57.3. At the five-eighths, Noble Legend (Kevin Cummings) pulled first over and brought heavily favoured J A T O (Mike Caprio) in tow, and the pair motored up towards the front. That outer flow chased the leader to the three-quarter station in 1:27.1 without gaining much ground when J A T O pulled three-wide in the last turn and started his solo assault. But when he actually drifted five-wide in the move, Serendipitious was able to maintain her lead in mid-stretch and fend off the pocket-sitting Winkys Pride as well as the late rush by J A T O to win by a neck. Winkys Pride (Drew Monti), who was the other mare in the race, finished second and J A T O settled for third.
The victory was the sixth of the year for Serendipitious ($21.80) and the winner’s share of the purse padded her bank account to the tune of $33,267 for Guy Polillo Est. and trainer John Mungillo.
The secondary feature carded as the $8,500 Open II saw Kahoku ($7.70) avoid some early road trouble and go wire-to-wire in a fast 1:56.3 for driver Ron Beback Jr. The eight-year-old gelded son of SJs Caviar is trained by Mark Laidlaw for owners Colleen Girdlestone and Michael Gentner.
Batavia Downs leading dash driver Kevin Cummings had a driving triple on the night while Drew Monti doubled up.
Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Saturday night (August 20) with the first post set for 6:15 p.m. Saturday’s card features the New York Sire Stakes two-year-old pacing fillies going for $110,200 in race four on the card.
(With files from Batavia Downs)