Batavia, NY — After an unusual break during last week’s outing, Face The Shadows (Shadow play) got back on track with a hard-fought harness race victory in the $12,500 Open Handicap for fillies and mares at Batavia Downs on Wednesday evening (Nov. 19).
Face The Shadows (Kevin Cummings) came away fourth while Won Surreal Deal (Kyle Cummings) rode sharply into the quarter in: 28.2. But Cummings rolled her out shortly afterwards and paced alongside the leader, into the wind as they passed the halfway mark in :57.3.
Won Surreal Deal and Face The Shadows continued to make equal strides around turn three, up the backstretch, through the final turn and to the top of the stretch, where Won Surreal Deal appeared to pull away by a length. But Face The Shadows got back into gear and took Won Surreal Deal, while also fending off the fast-closing Rightfully Mine (Jim McNeight Jr.) to win by a neck in 1:55.1.
It was the fifth win of the year for Face The Shadows ($18.70), owned by El Dorado Stables and Mike Torcello. Sam Smith trains the winner.
FACE ON THE SHADOW-REPEAT
Drivers Kevin Cummings, Dave McNeight III and Joe Chindano Jr. and trainer Courtney Wright each had two wins during the program.
There were no winning tickets in the Pick-5 bet on Wednesday night and as a result there is now a carryover of $6,143 for that bet in the first race on Friday (Nov. 21) and Batavia Downs management has announced that the pool will be guaranteed at $15,000 through the United States Trotting Association’s Strategic Wagering Program. This will offer full past program pages as a free download (when available) on the USTA website (ustrotting.com) under the Disabilities tab.
When live racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Friday (Nov. 21) with post time at 6 p.m., it will be the last Friday of the year racing at Batavia as the track switches to a Wednesday-Saturday schedule beginning Wednesday (Nov. 26) and running through Saturday (Dec. 20).
Free full card history performance programs for every live card of racing in Batavia can always be downloaded from The Downs website (bataviadownsgaming.com) under the ‘Live Racing’ tab. Then you can watch all the races live for free as they happen on the Batavia Downs YouTube page.
For full race results, click here: American trotting results.
Through Tim Boyarskifor Batavia Downs
#Face #Shadows #recover #break #score #narrow #victory