2018 has been a renaissance year at Saratoga Casino Hotel for veteran driver Jay Randall. The 57 year old reinsman has surged up into fifth place in the local driver standings in what has been his best season in quite some time. On Thursday afternoon, Randall piloted two of the three winners in co-featured $11,000 races for New York sired trotters. The Amy Dowd-trained Cherry Peep (Conway Hall) prevailed last week when Randall got a pocket trip for the three year old filly who surged up the passing lane en route to recording a victory in 1:59.1. On Thursday, Randall once again situated Cherry Peep into the pocket before closing up the inside to stop the timer in 1:59.1 in a near carbon copy of last week’s win.
Randall piloted Grammy Winner (Credit Winner) to a wire-to-wire score in the second co-feature of the day as the Todd Buter-trained trotter handled her step up in class without difficulty. The three year old filly won out of the non-winners of two race lifetime condition and moved into the winners of two but not more than five featured class where she went coast-to-coast on Thursday, scoring in 1:59 with Randall in tow. The win was the first of back-to-back jacks on the card for Buter and Randall who teamed up for a score with veteran trotter Stitch In Time on the matinee program. Randall completed a Thursday grand slam when he piloted Jordan Derue trainee Love Yourself (Rock N Roll Heaven) to a first-over score. The sophomore pacer overcame his outside post, prevailing despite a difficult journey in a 56.3 back half en route to the win which wrapped up a monster day for Randall in what has been a sensational ’18 campaign for the local reinsman.
The third co-feature on the card went the way of Notmeitsyou (Chapter Seven) who overcame his outside post to shake his recent seconditis for trainer-driver Phil Fluet. Notmeitsyou lasted on the lead in what was the fastest of the co-features on Thursday, scoring in 1:58.3 to break his string of five consecutive second-place finishes.
Live racing continues on Friday at Saratoga with a 6:45pm first post.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino