On a beautiful spring afternoon at Saratoga Casino Hotel, the feature was for New York sired trotters and went for a purse of $9,000. Dave Dewhurst’s Anja (Credit Winner) won eleven races in 2017 while competing in large part in the Fair Circuit as part of the New York Sire Stakes. Anja came into the season with a lifetime mark of 1:59 set at Saratoga in ’17. This year she has been competing exclusively in the local winners of two but not more than five pari-mutuel races lifetime and on Thursday was the public’s second choice in the wagering while at odds of 2-1. Starting from post three in the trotting feature, Anja moved out to the early lead while piloted by Jimmy Devaux and gave way to the favored Some Royalty (Billy Dobson). Some Royalty won her first six races of the year but has regressed a bit of late. Still, Some Royalty had the lead and went untested through three quarters of a mile before Anja popped the pocket and cruised right past the public’s choice. Anja stopped the timer in 1:58.1 to set a new lifetime mark in what was officially her sixteenth career victory. Some Royalty had to settle for second while Miss Muscle (John Stark Jr) earned the show spot.
Live racing continues at Saratoga on Friday evening with a first post time set for 6:45pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
