(Photo courtesy of Paul White.)
By Tom Bojarski, for Batavia Downs
After a two-week furlough, Sir Ziggy’s Z Tam was back taking on a short but select field in the $10,000 Open pacing feature at Batavia Downs on Saturday night (July 28) and in the process, got back to his winning ways.
Sir Ziggy’s Z Tam (Drew Monti) got away fourth as Classic American (Billy Davis Jr.) shot for the lead. The race got boring for the next five-eighths of a mile as position remained unchanged until just before three-quarters when Hardts Or Bettor (Ray Fisher Jr.) pulled from third and tried to advance. At this point, Sir Ziggy’s Z Tam was locked in last on the pylons.
As they headed out of the last turn, Hardts Or Bettor’s bid failed and he was heading south. Barry Hanover (Kevin Cummings) who sat second the whole mile, popped the deuce and paced right by Classic American to take the lead. But Sir Ziggy’s Z Tam who was almost three lengths behind the new leader, roared down the center of the track under methodic urging by Monti to make up the deficit and win by a length in 1:54.4.
It was the sixth win in nine starts for the high percentage Sir Ziggy’s Z Tam ($8.10) who now has banked $36,175 in 2018 for owner Tessa Roland and trainer JD Perrin.
In the co-featured $9,000 Open II, Bugatti (Billy Davis Jr.) tripped-out behind an aggressively paced Brunello N (Drew Monti) and capitalized on the fractions when Davis pulled right leather and let his horse fly home in :27.4 to win by two lengths in 1:54.
Bugatti ($7.10) is owned by Keith Pinkowski and trained by Mihajlo Zdjelar Jr.
Billy Davis Jr. put on a show for the weekend faithful, winning five of the eleven races on the card. Besides the afore mentioned Bugatti, Davis also scored with OK Gemma (1:57, $18), Bold And Brassy (1:55, $3.30), Osprey Vision (1:58.2, $3.80) and Energizer Ivory (1:56.4, $4.50).
The five wins by Davis bolted him from sixth to first in the driver standings, tying with Kevin Cummings for the lead with six wins on the meet. Cummings and Monti both scored doubles on Saturday.
With no winner in the Pick-5 wager once again on Saturday, there will be a guaranteed pool of $2,000 for the early Pick-5 this afternoon (July 29) when live racing resumes at Batavia Downs. The early Pick-5 wager starts in race one and runs through race five.
Post time for the first race today is 1:15 p.m.
