The 14th annual Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace at Saratoga Casino Hotel featured two former winners of the season’s biggest race at the Spa. Tattoo Artist and This Is The Plan won the two previous two installments of the Gerrity and drew into much different spots in this year’s $250,000 pace. The Chris Ryder-trained Tattoo Artist, the 2022 Gerrity winner, drew post three as he looked to repeat against the top-flight competition. This Is The Plan drew post seven and subsequently went off as one of the bigger longshots in the race. Tattoo Artist wound up heavily backed by the betting public going off at odds of 2-5 in what wound up being a wire-to-wire attempt. Jason Bartlett sat behind Tattoo Artist as he paced through first half fractions of 27 and 55.3 before asking the favorite to kick away around the final turn. All the while, longshot Idealsomemagic A, a nine year old son of American Ideal, followed the cover of a fellow Yonkers invader and although the trip got the best of his cover, Idealsomemagic A continued to progress steadily as the field came to the top of the stretch.
Tattoo Artist briefly scampered away from pocket-sitter Hellabablou (Joe Bongiorno) late in the game but just when it appeared that the favorite was about to pull off the repeat, Idealsomemagic A shifted gears and powered up and past the leader to prevail by three-quarters of a length. Idealsomemagic A, who is owned by Vip Internet Stable LLC and Stratton Stable Inc and trained by Cory Stratton, became the biggest longshot to prevail in the fourteen years of the Gerrity, scoring at odds of 27-1. The veteran pacer picked a good time to post a career-best effort as he stopped the timer in 1:50 to set a new lifetime mark behind perfect George Brennan piloting. With the win, Brennan and Stratton, incredibly, become the fourteenth different driver and trainer, respectively, to record victories in Gerrity history. Tattoo Artist finished second on Saturday while Hellabalou earned the show spot. The exacta and triple with the 27-1 shot on top returned $159 and $489.50, respectively.
Live racing continues on Sunday evening at Saratoga with a first post time of 6:45pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Jessica Hallett
Saratoga Casino Hotel | Saratoga Springs, New York
