For the second consecutive night, driver Bruce Aldrich Jr and trainer Jose Godinez teamed up for the winner of the feature at Saratoga Casino Hotel. After recording a win in Friday’s feature for fillies and mares, the Aldrich-Godinez tandem prevailed with RU Ready To Rock (Rocknroll Hanover) in Saturday’s $18,000 Open Pace. The eight year old pacer who had been the runner-up in each of his last two tries in the Saratoga Open started from post three in Saturday’s installment of the feature and wound up picking up cover in a race that was primed for closers to thrive. With first half fractions of 26.4 and 55.3 setting the table for the closers, RU Ready To Rock tipped off his cover turning for home in what wound up being a blanket finish. All eight horses finished within two lengths of each other with the top four finishers only separated by a total of a neck. RU Ready To Rock pulled off the upset at odds of 11-1 and bested Macherati (Mark Beckwith) and Ronny Bugatti (Jim Devaux) who ran second and third. RU Ready To Rock stopped the timer in 1:52.3 while recording his first Open win of the season at the Spa. The exacta and triple in the wide open feature paid $123 and $711. RU Ready To Rock is owned by Anthony Nicometo and the Blindswitch Racing Stable of New York whose Dilly Dali scored in the $10,060 Friday feature for distaffers.
Live racing continues on Sunday afternoon at Saratoga with a matinee beginning at 12:15pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
