Trainer/driver Trond Smedshammer fired Skates N Plates off the gate and was never headed, winning the $55,000 Charles I. Smith Trot, the seventh race on Friday, September 12, at Freehold Raceway.
The Charles I. Smith is restricted to New Jersey-sired three-year-old trotters and sponsored by the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey.
Skates N Plates, who is sired by Revenue, was tested by 1-2 favourite Hillustrious both in the first quarter and again in the homestretch, but repelled the son of Muscle Hill both times for a three-quarter length victory in 1:56.3. It was four lengths to Angels Ransom (sired by Revenue) in third.
Skates N Plates ($19.40) picked up his third win with a second and a third in 13 starts in 2014. Owned and bred by Robert J. Key of Leechburg, Pennsylvania, he has banked $87,703 this year and $162,541 for his career.
The stakes record for the Smith of 1:55.4 was set in 2010 by Flex The Muscle (Muscles Yankee).
In the co-featured $7,000 opening leg of the New Jersey Sire Stakes-Green Acres for two-year-old trotting fillies, carded as the third race, Model Behavior (Muscles Yankee-Marla Bar) was a three-quarter–length winner over Prinsessa (Muscle Hill) in 2:02.2. Contraire (Muscles Yankee) was third by a length.
Model Behavior, driven by Eric Abbatiello and trained by Robert Baggitt Jr., is owned by her breeder, Fair Winds Farm of Cream Ridge, New Jersey. She now has two wins in five starts.
(SBOANJ)