Plainville, MA — After driving mostly over land, Turn The Page N (Vincent) finished sharply to win her second victory in the top-class ladies’ harness racing with a purse of $25,000 at Plainridge Park on Tuesday afternoon (August 13).
Turn The Page N (Ron Cushing) finished sixth while The Panthiest A (Shawn Gray) set Side Piece (Drew Monti) and took Seaside Tina (Jay Randall) to the quarter mile in :26.1. While the top three went halfway in the same order, Cushing tipped Turn The Page N to enter the fray and was second entering turn two.
As the pace increased to three quarters, Seaside Tina began to weaken, forcing Turn The Page N to go wide three times in the :27.2 lap. As they passed that marker and entered the final turn, The Panthiest A and Turn The Page N were side by side and on the same pace. The battle continued down the homestretch, but Turn The Page N began to pull away and eventually pulled away until she had a 1 ¼ length lead at the lights, winning in 1:51.1.
It was the fourth win of the year for Turn The Page N ($2.80), owned by her rider Cushing, who works with Kevin Sywyk. Carlos Rodriguez trains the winner.
Turn the page and play again
In the $18,500 conditioning race for 5-year-olds and younger, Sweet Jeff IR (Sweet Lou) and driver Nick Graffam took an immediate lead, marching away in stretches of :28, :56.4 and 1:24.4 before turning onto the home stretch to hold off ER Griffin (Brett Beckwith) and Maggie At Bat (Matty Athearn) to win in 1:52.3.
It was the sixth win of the meeting for Sweet Jeff IR ($10.60), who maintained his outstanding position in the class having never missed the finish line in 15 starts at The Ridge this year. The Irish-bred colt is owned by Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi and trained by Joe Nelson.
SWEET JEFF IR REPEAT
Drew Campbell was the leading driver on Tuesday, winning three races on the card, while 11 different trainers won one race each.
There was one lucky winner of the Wicked Hi-5 Pentafecta in race nine. The only unique winning combination of 4-3-2-8-1 paid out $4,486.54 for the 20 cent bet.
Live racing will continue on Thursday (August 15) at Plainridge Park, with start time at 4 p.m.
Click here to view the full race results: Results of the US Trotting Competition
from Tim Boyarskifor the Standardbred owners of Massachusetts
