Buck I St Pat lowers Vernon trotting track record

Freshly-minted Breeders Crown champion Buck I St. Pat and driver Tim Tetrick lived up to their advanced billing during Monday’s matinee program at Vernon Downs.

 

Buck I St. Pat ($2.50) and Tetrick turned in an exciting 1:54.3 victory in Monday’s $139,500 Conway Hall contest, establishing a track record for aged trotting mares, and helping Tetrick, one of the Standardbred sport’s top reinsmen, achieve a meet-high six wins during the Labor Day 10-race card.

 

With stablemate Diana Hall leading to the quarter in :27.4, Buck I St. Pat idled in fifth place. After Lavec Dream took over and advanced the field to the half in :57.3 and third station in 1:27, the 6-year-old daughter of Jailhouse Jesse-Name It Something found herself parked out in sixth place. She then shifted into her explosive closing gear, and roared through the homestretch, making up more than three lengths in a :26.4 final quarter and earning a one-length score over Lavec Dream, driven by owner and trainer Peter Kleinhans. Autumn Escapade (Ray Schnittker) finished third.

 

The titillating tally by the Ron Burke-trainee was the second in a row, seventh in 13 season’s starts and 38th overall for the career-winner of more than $1.3 million, who is registered to the R. Fuller, Howard Taylor, Edwin Gold and Abraham Basen ownership contingent. The time clipped two-fifths of a second off the previous Vernon record for veteran trotting mares, established by Mystical Sunshine in 2006.

 

Tetrick also steered Scorpion Moon to a 1:53.4 score for conditioner Tracy Brainard and her ownership partner, Andrew Herzog, in Monday’s $9,000 Open handicap trot, which equaled the fastest mile by a square-gaiter after 65 current programs. It was one of four first-place finishes during the afternoon for the track’s defending training champ.

 

Brandnewgirlfriend improved her career record to 23 wins in 27 starts with a 1:56.3 triumph in Monday’s opening division of a $207,304 New York Sires Stakes showdown for 3-year-old filly trotters. The front-striding score made it 12 victories in 14 current attempts for the brown daughter of Conway Hall-Tiffany Gold, who was handled by Brian Mattison and is trained by co-owner Paul Kelley and his partners Stephen Michaels, Jim Winske and the East Pond Stable.

 

The afternoon’s other NYSS winners were Michelle’s Way (Conway Hall-Miss Michelle) in 1:56.1 for driver Brent Holland, trainer Ken Rucker and owner Marcos Ameralis; Gift Card (Credit Winner-Mary Lou Hall) in 1:56.2 for Tetrick, trainer Frank Antonacci and owners K. R. Breeding, Robert Rudolph and Gary Hoffman, and Winbak Roberta (Plesac-Summer Belle) in 1:56.4 for driver Pat Berry, trainer Gregg DeSanto and the Italian group Scuderia OM.

 

Tetrick also teamed Western Tsunami to a 1:51.2 tally in Monday’s $9,000 Open handicap pace for trainer Brainard and the Just Luck Stable. His other first-place finishes came behind Brainard’s trotter Eng-amer Davanti (1:54.2) and her trainee D’artagnan (1:53.2), who is owned by Frank and Inge Smith and former Vernon regular Veral Bowman. (Vernon)