(Photo of Celebrity Ruth with driver Jason Bartlett.)
By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs
There were record breakers coming from everywhere at Batavia Downs on Wednesday night (Sept. 6) as the track standard was breached three times during the proceedings of the $108,2000 New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) and $30,000 Excelsior A series for 3-year-old trotting fillies.
In the first $59,100 division, Mamora Bay (Sam Schillaci) got away fourth behind a heated front-end battle between Deli-Delite (Drew Monti) and Busy Doing Nothing (Ray Fisher Jr.) that lasted until the half. At that point Schillaci pulled his filly, went three-wide around the fading Busy Doing Nothing and took the lead from Deli-Delite by the three-quarter pole in 1:27. Now on a track record pace, Mamora Bay looked like the only thing to beat was the clock, but Deli-Delight came back on and chased her to the wire. But Mamora Bay hung tough to win by a half-length in 1:57.2, which tied the track record for age, gender and gait.
It was the second win of 2017 for Mamora Bay (Chapter Seven-Guilie Bi) who now has earned $95,881 this year for owner Peter Barbado. Mamora Bay ($3.40) is trained by Sam Schillaci.
In the second $59,100 split, Celebrity Ruth (Jason Bartlett) took the lead by the quarter pole and was never headed from there as Bartlett sat chilly the whole mile after the favored Barn Bella (Jeff Gregory) made a break by the eighth pole. Setting easy early fractions of :29.2 and :59.4, Bartlett loosened the lines a bit to try and put some distance between his horse and Ostrich Blue Chip (Scott Zeron) who was sitting on his back. They smoked the third quarter in 1:28.2 and then with one line-tap from Bartlett, Celebrity Ruth trotted home in :28.2 to win by a length in 1:56.4 which broke the track record.
It was the second win in five days for Celebrity Ruth (Archangel-Celebrity Obsession) and sixth on the season. The winner’s share of the purse has pushed the filly over the quarter-million dollar mark in earnings this year with $250,983 now in the bank. Celebrity Ruth ($4.30) is owned by White Birch Farm and trained by Trond Smedshammer.
Just because the NYSS divisions were over didn’t mean the record breaking had ended as well. There were still two $15,000 divisions of the Excelsior A series to be run and one of them got in on the action.
(Photo of Seventh Heaven with driver Jason Bartlett.)
Seventh Heaven (Jason Bartlett) got off the wings third and took advantage of an expeditious half of :57.2 (which was faster than either NYSS contest) set by Billie Blue (Chris Lems) and take the lead at the three-quarters before coasting home under wraps in 1:56.4 to tie the three-race-old track record.
It was the seventh win for Seventh Heaven (Chapter Seven-Porque) this year and her efforts have now benefitted owner Richard Balog with $50,800 in purses. Seventh Heaven (2.90) is trained by Linda Toscano.
The second Excelsior A division was won by Aunt Susie (Credit Winner-Aunt Mel) who went gate to wire in 1:58.2. Aunt Susie ($4.60) is owned by the Ervin Miller Stable, Paymaq Racing, the Nick Surick Stable LLC and Louis Willinger. Nick Surick does the training and Jim Morrill Jr. was in the sulky.
