Marcus Miller swept the Labor Day features at Vernon Downs, capturing both $59,100 New York Sire Stakes events for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings with Bottom Deals and Fresh Cut, both by American Ideal.
The eighth event of the day saw Bottom Deals take advantage of the pocket a fair bit longer than Fresh Cut before edging clear in mid-stretch to a 1:49.2 triumph, shaving two-fifths of a second off the track record for three-year-old pacing colts previously held by Jeneral Patton and Tim Tetrick.
Bottom Deals drafted behind 6-5 favourite Talk Show (Morrill) through splits of :26, :53.4, and 1:22, but had to wait until turning for home to make his move, where he split Talk Show and the first-over Tap Into Power (Dobson), who bore out off the corner. Bottom Deals sprinted off at first asking to defeat the late-rallying Fine Diamond (Kakaley) by 2-1/2 lengths; Talk Show was a reeled-in third. Linda Toscano trains Bottom Deals (9.80) for CC Racing LLC, the Camelot Stable Inc and John Cancelliere.
Just three races earlier, Fresh Cut did well to follow through after his Empire Breeders Classic triumph at Tioga, vacating the pocket on the clubhouse turn to take charge from Stolen Glimpse (Matt Kakaley) after a :27 first quarter. Fresh Cut enjoyed nearly complete control of the terms from that point on, shrugging off a mild first-over bid from Nox Vegas Bluechip (Billy Dobson) before successfully defending one final push from Stolen Glimpse. Fresh Cut ($5.70) prevailed by a length in 1:51.2 for the Bay Pond Racing Stable and trainer Erv Miller, Stolen Glimpse held second, and Roll Away Joe (Jim Morrill, Jr.) mounted mild gains off stalling cover to take third as part of an odds-on entry.
In addition to both Sire Stakes events on the 13-race card, Miller accounted for wins with Jet Airway ($3.40, 1:49.3), Endeavor ($2.80, 1:50.2), and Manswell ($21.20, 1:59.3).
Live racing returns to the Miracle Mile on Thursday evening at 6:45 p.m.
(Vernon Downs)