All Charged Up with driver John MacDonald.
By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs
The Canadian owned, central New York based All Charged Up has been plying her trade in Western New York for three-weeks now and on Wednesday evening (Aug. 16), she just captured her second straight $9,000 Mares Open Handicap pacing feature at Batavia Downs.
All Charged Up (John MacDonald) left, but yielded to Little Santamonica (Larry Stalbaum) who wanted the front and got her way. From there she did all the heavy lifting, setting fractions of :27.2, :56.2 and 1:25.1. At that station MacDonald started to roll All Charged Up to the outside and the mare paced right around the leader. She had command before they hit the stretch and then paced away to an easy five-length victory in 1:53.1, which was only one-fifth of a second off the track record for aged pacing mares (Xenia Hanover 1:53, 2013).
It was the 25th lifetime win for All Charged Up ($4.40) and it pushed her career earnings total to $236,532 for owner J P Stables. The 6-year-old daughter of Ponder is trained by “The Prime Minister” John MacDonald.
MacDonald doubled his fun by winning the co-featured $8,000 Mares Open II pace with Drea’s Good Powow. Getting a similar two-hole trip, Drea’s Good Powow sat behind Voltina (Kevin Cummings) until the top of the stretch when he pulled her and paced right by to win by a length in 1:55.2.
It was the second win in three starts for Drea’s Good Powow ($3.80) and the second win of the night for owner J P Stables and trainer/driver MacDonald.
The biggest win mutual of the meet so far was realized in the eighth race on the card. Ray Fisher Jr. took advantage of a fast :55.3 half and swooped the field from worst to first with Canthelpbutwin at 54-1. When the dust had settled from the tote board being blown up, the win price displayed was $101.50 for a $2 wager. That prompted a $2 “7-2” Exacta that paid $1,129, a $2 “7-2-all” Trifecta that paid $1,646 and a $1 “7-2-all-all” Superfecta that returned $464.50.
John MacDonald wasn’t the only horseman to capture two driving and training wins on the night. Shawn McDonough and Larry Stalbaum also attained the same achievement.
Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Friday with post time at 6 p.m. The early Pick-5 on Friday starts with a $1,500 pool and goes as races one through five.
