After spending most of his summer racing the New York fair circuit, Barn Winner made a rare night-time pari-mutuel appearance and went home victorious in the $10,000 Open Handicap trot at Batavia Downs on Friday night (Aug. 25).
It seemed way too easy. Barn Winner (Kevin Cummings) left from post one and yielded the lead to Lutetium (John Cummings Jr.) in the first turn and from there he just had to sit and wait. Lutetium took the group through fractions of :28.1, :57.4 and 1:27 before he started showing signs of fatigue.
At the top of the far turn, Cummings pulled Barn Winner and he trotted right on by the leader and just kept on going. BZ Glide (Mike Caprio) came flying late outside and Corleone Hall (Drew Monti) found room up the passing lane, but Barn Winner held them at bay and won by a length in 1:57.1.
It was the eighth win in 17 starts this year for Barn Winner ($7.80) and it provided him with a new lifetime mark as well. Now boasting earnings of $30,980 for 2017, Barn Winner is owned by Steve and Nancy Pratt and is trained by Steve Pratt.
In the co-featured $8,000 Open II trot, Egosnattitudes (Larry Stalbaum) came from sixth and made a bold three-wide move at three-quarters to sweep the field and catch the front-running Nobel Legend (Ray Fisher Jr.) by a neck to win in 1:56.4. Egosnattitudes ($13.00) is owned by Graham Grace Stables LLC and is trained by Kim Asher.
Kevin Cummings and Larry Stalbaum both had driving hat tricks on Friday while Drew Monti captured two races of his own. Joe Skowyra had a training triple with Angelo Nappo garnerning two training wins as well.
Live harness racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Aug. 26) with the first race post set at 6:00 p.m.
(with files from Batavia)