Litigator wins in debut

January 04, 2007

For the second straight time Jake's Nordic powered to victory in the $24,000 Open Trot feature at Dover Downs on Wednesday, while Litigator made his first local start a winning one in the $20,000 Jr. Open Trot sub-feature. Drivers Tim Tetrick and Ross Wolfenden had three-win nights, George Dennis and Eddie Davis Jr. collected doubles.

In the veteran trotter's familiar style, Tim Curtin made good use of post one to get the lead at the start and set the tempo the rest of the mile for a 1:55.3 triumph. Breeze Hill Will found room between horses for Tetrick and closed strongly to finish second. Self Professed, piloted by Brandon Givens, took show money in the feature. Dan and Tom Courtemanche owned the 8-year-old Keystone Nordic gelding that now has lifted his career bankroll to $640,516.

Litigator, a 13-race winner in 2006, make his first start for Parent Racing and Crystal Ball stables a 1:56.3 victory with Tetrick in the bike. The Illinois-bred son of Valley Victor left from post eight and was locked in during the middle stages of the $20,000 event before escaping. The 4 year old then moved outside and rolled home just in front of Saint Johns Boy and Wolfenden hustling along the passing lane. Go Nano Go led until turning for home with Davis and held on for third.

The $15,500 winners-Over trot featured an all female one-two-three finish. Dennis won for the second time guiding Go Sassy Go, a 5-year-old CR Commando mare, to victory in 1:57.3. Game Speed (Corey Callahan) was runner-up with Love You Most (Eddie Dennis) the show horse.

One of the three wins for Tetrick, the track's dash win leader this meet, came behind Bruce Fisher and Green Racing Stable's Winbak Len in a $10,200 Delaware pace for young horses. The Rustler Hanover gelding won for third time in four races beating Dons Dream Mindale (Tony Morgan) and Pathfinder (George Dennis), second and third, respectively.

Jim King urged Howard Jacobs' Grecian Art up in the final strides in 1:55.1 to win the first of two $25,000 claiming paces, the Artsplace gelding's second consecutive victory. Mr. Romantic (Wolfenden) was second with Gehrig (Dennis) third.

Fuzzy Sylberun came from far off the pace to win the other $25,000 claimer. It was Wolfenden's third win. It was Fuzzy Sylberun's first start after being claimed by Rodney Long and Tim Hundertfund in mid-December. In Hot Pursuit HR (Tetrick) was a game second. Quite A Butt (Davis) came on strongly to finish third.

An unique happening occurred during the night. Two races ended in dead-heat wins. In a $12,000 Delaware mares claiming allowance, Ken Weintraub's Allamerican Quiver (Givens) and Gracefully Yours (Morgan) racing for Vic and Bob Venturena, could not be separated by the photo finish camera in a 1:55.2 dash.

Later in a $10,000 Delaware male claiming pace, Bob Aerenson's Winning Matters (Tetrick) and Andrew's Linedrive, owned by Darren White and Deb Ehinger (Jim Morand) dead-heated in 1:57.1. (Dover Downs)

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