With only two weeks remaining until the Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace is contested at Saratoga Casino Hotel, pacers are starting to run short on opportunities to gain points towards the quarter million dollar biggest race of the year at the Spa. There were two divisions of the Invitational pacing events on the Saturday card that serve as qualifiers for the Gerrity on August 29th. Blazing Home N drew the rail for his try in the $18,000 pace and his owner/trainer/driver Larry Stalbaum made sure the talented seven year old would not get as difficult of a trip as he got last week when he raced parked the mile. Blazing Home N powered out from his inside post on Saturday and cut the mile. After getting a fairly soft half in 57.2, Stalbaum went pedal to the metal with his stable’s pacing star and what resulted was a 54.4 final lap en route to a 1:52.1 Saturday score at odds of even money. Rock Solid Express (Billy Dobson) sat the pocket to the winner before coming up second-best while back-to-back Gerrity prep winner Binge On Yankee (Kyle Swift) had to settle for third.
The other division of the Gerrity Invitational went the way of Mullinax and driver Aaron Byron. The Melissa Beckwith trainee worked hard to get to the front in a 26.4 first quarter before enjoying a bit of a slow-down in the middle half and going on to win in 1:53.2 to secure his second victory in three local tries in the Gerrity prep races.
Live racing resumes on Monday afternoon at Saratoga and will feature a Pick Five carryover of $5,182 starting in the matinee’s first race. First post time is set for 12pm.
Mike Sardella | Saratoga Casino Hotel | Saratoga Springs, NY
Jessica Hallett photo
