After finishing second by a mere head in her last two outings, Arizona turned the tables on Tuesday, April 23 when she captured the $27,397 featured pace for fillies and mares at Plainridge Park.
Bruce Ranger air mailed Arizona from post seven and expeditiously gained the lead before hitting the first turn. Arizona then set swift fractions of :26.2 and :55.3 while Booraa N (Ron Cushing) tried to advance in the breeze. As the race moved onto the backstretch, Side Piece (Brett Beckwith) swung three-deep around Booraa N and made her way to second at three-quarters in 1:23.2. Arizona and Side Piece matched strides around the far turn and then sparred in the lane and all the way down to the wire where Arizona held on to a one-half length margin of victory in 1:51.4.
Arizona ($4.60) is owned by Wendy Warren Timpano and is trained by Mark Beckwith.
There were also three $19,178 conditioned paces for the five-year-old and younger set on the card.
The first went to Manferno (Matty Athearn), who led gate to wire to win by a neck over Mach Seelster (Nick Graffam) in a season’s best 1:54.3. Trained by Jimmy Nickerson, Manferno ($3.60) is owned by Joe Trice.
The second went to Warrawee Yale (Kevin Switzer Jr.), who tripped out behind Sweet Jeff Ir (Nick Graffam) before pacing by the leader in the lane to win by a length in 1:52.4. Warrawee Yale ($3.40) is owned and trained by Gerald MacKenzie Jr.
The last was won by Windydayatthebeach (Shawn Thayer), who also sat second behind the heavily favoured Seaside Tina (Kevin Switzer Jr.) until the stretch where she caught the chalk by a nose at the line in 1:53.3. Sent off at 21-1, Windydayatthebeach returned a healthy $44 for owners Kevin Gee and Robert Kolpack. Randy Bickmore was the winning trainer.
Twenty-nine-year-old Haley Farken got her first training win in her first training start at Plainridge on Tuesday when Brett Beckwith steered King Spencer to a 1:53.3 two-length victory in the day’s fourth race. It was also the first start of the year for King Spencer ($2.60), who is owned by his trainer.
There was one happy, big winner in the ninth race after the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta was hit. The single unique winning combination of 3-4-1-9-7 returned $9,390.36 for the 20-cent wager.
Racing participants winning two races on Tuesday included drivers Shawn Gray, Bruce Ranger and Shawn Thayer, along with trainers Randy Bickmore and Alicia Gray.
Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Thursday, April 25 with post time at 4 p.m.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)