Batavia, NY – On Friday (October 10), Batavia Downs held their annual breast cancer awareness fundraiser in partnership with the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester (New York), which has become a key part of their annual running calendar. The 2024 event raised over $25,000 and the hope is to surpass that amount again this year.
Among the many activities conducted at the sold-out event to raise funds and awareness for the fight against this dreaded disease, the fifth race was called the $7,500 Breast Cancer Awareness Pace, with horses from seven female trainers invited to participate. And the race was won by Mateo (Blue burner) who was trained by Jami Chatt.
Drew Monti sent Mateo straight forward and turned all visitors back from the start. After reaching the half in :59.4, Mateo took on the challenges of Mason Street (Dave McNeight III) and Barry Hanover (Justin Huckabone) from the three-quarters to the line, but he fought hard to fend them off and won by length in 1:58.3.
It was Mateo’s 31st lifetime victory ($7.92) and pushed the 11-year-old gelding son of Blue Burner’s career bankroll to $382,241. Chatt is also co-owner of Mateo, along with his driver, Drew Monti.
MATEO REPEAT
The other trainers in the race were (from post one out) Lynn Fisher, Courtney Wright, Judy Blaun, Ann Yurenka, Cassandra Johnson and Sophie Norton.
There were also many other female trainers sending out winners all night long at Batavia Downs, including Sheena Cohen (Brookview Darius-1:58.3, $4.36), Maria Rice (Munk-1:59.1, $6.80), Tammy Cummings (My One Percent 1:59.4, $19.30 and Always Choose Chip 1:58.4, $2.28), Mae Smith (Huntsville Place 1:58.2, $8.72), Candace Brandstatter-Hall (Grinder 1:59.4, $9.78) and Taylor Fritz, who won the evening’s regular race, as detailed below.
After a two-week break, Starlitcresentroll was ‘poppin’ fresh’ and set out to claim his first victory since August in the $10,000 AA Trotting feature at Batavia Downs on Friday evening (October 10).
Drew Monti pushed Starlitcresentroll into the gate lead and smashed into the quarter: 29 flat while Latavius (Jim Morrill Jr.) was snug in the pocket. After being throttled to a pedestrian:31.1 in the second quarter, Monti accelerated and Starlitcresentroll went:28.4 to the back, thwarting an outside blitz attempt by Double Class (Kyle Cummings), who was only third. At the top of the track, Starlitcresentroll had a lead of one and a half lengths, but Latavius made a run on the leader and made things interesting. However, Latavius’s best effort fell three-quarters of a length short as Starlitcresentroll tripped over the beam first in 1:58.3.
It was Starlitcresentroll’s seventh win of the year ($13.26) and it increased his season earnings to $59,090, both career highs. Starlitcresentroll is owned by Lucky Label Stable and trained by Taylor Fritz.
Kyle Swift led all drivers with three wins on the card Friday, while trainers Tammy Cummings and Chris Petrelli each scored two wins to lead their category.
The $5,000 guaranteed pool in Friday’s Pick-5 bet proved to be a major score for some lucky bettors. The combination of 1-4-2-6-2 returned $1,972.61 for the 50 cent bet.
Live racing resumes on Saturday (October 11) at Batavia Downs with post time at 6pm and there will be a carryover of $2,630 in the Jackpot Super Hi-5 pentafecta in the 12th race.
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
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