Batavia Downs’ leading driver, Drew Monti, won five of the 11 races on Thursday, Aug. 27 to extend his advantage in the standings.
Monti won with Cash Back (1:56.3, $5.72), Naked Truth (1:57.3, $6.06), Rc Enterprise (1:59.4, $11.70), Baby Yoda (2:00, $11.40) and Actor Hanover (1:58.3, $5.08), who completed his five-bagger for the evening.
Monti also had three seconds from his 10 drives, giving him a stellar .667 UDR for the program. Now with 40 wins for the meet, Monti sits 14 ahead of both Shawn Gray (26) and Dave McNeight III (26) for the summer/fall dash title.
The seventh-race $8,000 conditioned pace was a tight contest that was won by Saulsbrook Ian (Brett MacDonald), who sat third behind leader Coltons Charm (Drew Monti) through early fractions of :27.4 and :57.3. Kilowatt Kid N (Joe Chindano Jr.) pulled first-over at the midway point, and Saulsbrook Ian followed that rival to three-quarters in 1:26.1. Positions remained unchanged through the last turn until Saulsbrook Ian shifted three-high coming into the lane and passed the leaders to defeat Solar Solution (Leon Bailey) by a nose in 1:56.2. Pepper Jack Flash (Kyle Cummings) finished third.
Saulsbrook Ian ($6.08) is owned by his driver, Brett MacDonald, in partnership with Katie Remmerswaal and Shen Guo. Ronald MacDonald was the winning trainer.
Cassie Russo had two winners to lead all trainers on Thursday.
The $7,500 guaranteed pool in the Pick-5 wager made several bettors richer as the combination of 5/4/1/4/1 returned $1,167.80 for a 50-cent bet.
Live racing will resume at Batavia Downs on Saturday. Post time has been moved up to 4 p.m. from this Saturday until Saturday, Sept. 5 due to a lighting issue that will be addressed during that time.
(Batavia Downs; photo of Drew Monti after previous win)