Up Tempo, second choice in the wagering, raced like thought he was the best, and then proved it with a 1:56.4 score in Friday night’s $10,000 Open-1 Trot at Vernon
Downs.
Competing against four foes in the featured ninth race on a track turned sloppy by persistent rain, Up Tempo ($9.40) went right to the front for driver Rick Plano and romped to a one and three-quarter length victory. It marked the third current score and 26th lifetime tally for the six-year-old son of Boy Band-A Virtue, who is trained by Jennifer Sansone and owned by John Brophy.
The sixth member of the select Open-1 field, Flex The Muscle, was a judge’s scratch.
Plano piloted a pair of first-place finishes during Friday’s 12-race card.
Friday’s fastest mile (1:56.3) was registered by Brian Green’s veteran trotter Yankee Manny, who made his Downs debut a winning one with trainer Frank Davis doing the driving in the $8,000 seventh session, the week’s Open-2 contest.
(Vernon Downs)