Monday afternoon’s card was filled with series races at Saratoga Casino Hotel as the Jim Derue Trot and Gary Kamal Pace got underway. There were five divisions of the fourth annual Jim Derue Memorial Trotting Series on the holiday matinee program and four divisions of the third annual Gary Kamal Memorial Pacing Series each going for a purse of $7,500. Iwantmytwodollars (Muscle Hill) was the most dominant of the leg one winners of the Derue Trot. Bruce Aldrich Jr. moved Iwantmytwodollars out to the early lead and the trotting mare never looked back, scoring a convincing win in 1:57.1, the fastest of any of the trotters in leg one. Aldrich piloted two more of the leg one winners of the Derue Series as he guided Strong Crazed and BJAnthony to Monday scores. Mugshots Bro (Stephane Bouchard) and Aberforth (Shawn Gray) rounded out the trotting winners on the card. Southwind Ricardo (Billy Dobson) was the fastest of the leg one winners in the Kamal Series. The three year old pacer moved his record to two-for-two since moving to the stable of trainer Gary Levine after cruising to an open length victory in 1:55.1 and stamping himself as the one to beat in the pacing series. Stirling Electra (Phil Fluet) pulled off the biggest upset of the day as she scored at odds of 40-1. Other Kamal Series winners on the afternoon were Bay Rum (Bouchard) and Fox Valley Bailey who completed a grand slam for Bruce Aldrich on the card with her strong closing win. There is one leg remaining in each of the series before the finals which will both go for more than $30,000 and will be contested late in the month.
Live racing resumes on Thursday at Saratoga with a first post time of 4:00pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
