You might say it was a two-horse race at Batavia Downs, except that it was between the top two drivers in western New York. Billy Davis Jr. won six races—including the feature—and Jim Morrill Jr. won five races—including stringing four in a row—accounting for the winners of 11 of 13 races contested on Saturday night (Sept. 5).
Davis’ best victory came in the $8,000 Open II Handicap Pace behind Class Six. Davis sat in fourth with Class Six while Under Paid led the field around once. Then Davis pulled Class Six first over and made a three-wide move at the three-quarters, grabbed the lead by the top of the stretch and held off a late rally by Daylight Rush to win by three-quarter lengths in 1:54.1.
It was the fifth win in 20 starts this year for Class Six ($19.00), who is owned by Eric Prevost and trained by Sabrina Shaw.
Davis also scored with Inspector Murdoch (1:58.1, $4.80), Hold The Gold (1:55.4, $25.80), Sizzling summer (1:55.3, $5.10), Rockin Legend (1:58.2, $5.30) and This Baby Rocks (1:56.3, $2.20). All six wins were for six different trainers.
Among the five wins Morrill scored was the co-featured $7,000 Open III Pace, where he went gate to wire with Atlantis ($3.80) in 1:56.3 for owner Mike Torcello and trainer Gerry Sarama.
Morrill also won with Beachy Dream (1:55..2, $2.90), Sir Richie N (1:56.1, $3.20) and Odyssey Blue Chip (2:00.2, $8.60) which are also owned by Torcello and trained by Sarama giving them a grand slam evening, and Whosurpapa (1:56.1, $2.50).
After their big nights, Morrill remains the leading driver of the meet with 39 wins, followed by Billy Davis Jr. who has 31. Drew Monti sits in third with 17 and Dave McNeight III is fourth with 16.
Davis is currently the ninth leading percentage driver in North America for drivers with 500 or more starts (Davis has 536) with a UDR of .343, sitting right behind Tim Tetrick and just ahead of Dexter Dunn. Morrill is seventh among drivers in North America with between 300 and 499 starts (Morrill has 495) with a UDR of .383.
Batavia Downs had a big following at the windows on Saturday night as they registered their second largest handle ever under Western Regional Off Track Betting ownership, only behind the 2019 New York Sire Stakes Night of Champions last September. The Downs customers pumped over $120,000 more through the windows tonight than they did one years ago on this same date.
Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Sept. 9) with post time set for 5 p.m. (EDT).
(Batavia Downs)