Favourite Yankees In Six rewarded his backers with a victory in Saturday night’s featured $11,000 Open Pace at Vernon Downs, while the hard-charging side-wheeler Potala Prince produced an odd-distance track record in a later race on the 11-event card.
Following a second-place finish in last week’s top overnight class, Yankees In Six ($6.90) got away fifth as Hay Good Looking took the select field of six to the three-quarter mark in 1:24.1. With a bold three-wide rally around the final turn, the four-year-old black gelding gained the lead entering the final furlong and sprinted to a half-length victory over Forty Carrots in 1:51.1.
A last quarter in :26.3 sealed the deal for the son of Panspacificflight-Law And Order, who snared his second local score, sixth season’s tally and 12th lifetime victory. His 1:51.1 clocking was just three-fifths of a second off the track record for his age, sex and gait that was set by River Shark in 2010.
Brian Connor did the teaming for trainer Edgar Clarke, and the Robert J. Orr/Gary Jonas ownership contingent as Yankees In Six raised his lifetime earnings to $185,308.
Saturday’s fifth race, the second-annual Dashtonian, found eight eager pacers vying for a $4,200 purse in a half-mile dash. With trainer Adam Capizzano at the controls, Potala Prince ($17.40) went right for the lead off the gate, built up a six-length advantage entering the stretch drive and hustled to a :54.1 win, which trimmed a full second off the previous time-standard for this distance at the Downs.
Lightning Prince, who had set the :55.1 standard in last year’s initial Dashtonian, was a contender in Saturday’s fifth race before going off-stride entering the stretch drive and finishing eighth.
The quick-footed effort marked the first win in 2012, but the fifth lifetime tally for the five-year-old gelded-son of McArdle-Armbro View, who is registered to Capizzano, Joe Marcoe and Kyle Storie.
Connor went on to record his second triple of the 48-program local meeting, while two-win credits went to drivers Jimmy Whittemore, Frank Davis, trainer/owner Scott West and his partner Katie Currie, as well as owner/trainer Mark Liebowitz and Phyllis Liebowitz, and owner/trainer Kenneth Dawson and Annette Dawson.
(Vernon Downs)