Givenupdreaming (If I Can Dream) moved his record in the local feature to two-for-two at Saratoga Casino Hotel on Saturday night. The Heidi Rohr trainee prevailed in last week’s Open Pace and wound up repeating despite a long first over journey in Saturday’s $15,000 installment of the Open. Stephane Bouchard moved Givenupdreaming first up on the race’s odds-on favorite Panocchio (Gerry Mattison) who got soft middle half fractions while on the front end. Givenupdreaming fought gamely and wound up besting the favorite in the final strides of the 1 1/16 mile feature. Panocchio held strong for second while Domethatagain (Billy Dobson) got up for third. The five year old Givenupdreaming, who covered the 1 1/16 mile in 1:59.1 after clocking the track’s fastest mile time of the year last week (1:51.2), returned $9.70 to win and led an exacta and triple that paid $25 and $63.
Live racing continues on Sunday afternoon at Saratoga with a matinee beginning at 12:15pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
