With a dark and stormy Monday afternoon (Oct. 30) at Plainridge Park, the weather left the track with off-going; but despite the less than favourable conditions, Enhance Yourcalm N maintained his composure to win the $25,000 Open Handicap trotting feature.
Big Box Hanover (Drew Campbell) left sharply and took a brief, early lead. That’s because Enhance Yourcalm N (Kevin Switzer Jr.) made an early call on the outside and took control of the race at the :28 quarter. Positions remained unchanged into turn two when Sonnys Moni (Bruce Ranger) went first-over with Chapheart (Nick Graffam) on his back. These top three trotted in close quarters up the backstretch, around the last turn and into the stretch where Chapheart passed Sonnys Moni and took dead aim at Enhance Yourcalm N. The two battled hard to the line but Enhance Yourcalm N held his ground and hung on by a neck in 1:55.1.
Owned by his trainer Mark Eaton, in partnership with Robert Griffin, Enhance Yourcalm N ($4.40) earned his ninth win of the year from 31 starts.
One race later in the $22,500 upper-conditioned trot, the track’s winningest horse of the year to this point, Echo De Meautis Fr, won his 11th race of the meet with a very gutsy effort.
Echo De Meautis Fr (Bruce Ranger) left from post eight and trotted loose on the lead to the half before Sidd Finch (Jay Randall) made his way towards the front on the outside. Sidd Finch closed to within one-half length of Echo De Meautis Fr at three-quarters and by the top of the stretch had a slim lead. Sidd Finch was almost one-half length ahead in deep stretch when Echo De Meautis Fr dug deep and roared back to retake the lead just before the wire and win by three-quarters of a length in 1:57.
Echo De Meautis Fr ($5) has now made $147,796 through 28 starts this year on the strength of his voluminous number of wins. Archie Mc Neil owns the Melissa Beckwith-trained gelding.
Bruce Ranger and Nick Graffam had two driving wins each while 10 different trainers won one race apiece.
Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Friday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m.
(With files from Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)