Wednesday’s matinee program at Saratoga Casino Hotel featured a trio of $9,000 events for New York sired trotters and for the second time in as many weeks, trainer-driver Phil Fluet thrived. Last week, Fluet scored one win and a couple of second-place finishes with his trainees but on Wednesday, he recorded a pair of winners. Lady Macbeth (Deweycheatumnhowe) was a repeat winner as she overcame a difficult trip to go back-to-back. Lady Macbeth was caught four-wide around the final turn but came charging hard to get past her rivals and stop the timer in 2:00.4. Her stablemate Notmeitsyou (Chapter Seven) has been a picture of consistency since coming to Saratoga last year and on Wednesday kept his long streak of finishing first or second going as he parlayed his pocket ride into a 2:00.2 score for Fluet. Lady Macbeth was her race’s 7-5 betting favorite while Notmeitsyou’s victory came while sent out at odds of 2-5.
The Maureen Salino-trained Bonamassa (Muscle Mass) cruised to a wire-to-wire score in the final of the three co-features as the four year old mare prevailed in 1:59.4, the fastest time of the co-featured trotting races on the card. Brett Crawford piloted Bonamassa to her second win in three starts on the young season.
Live racing continues on Thursday afternoon at Saratoga with a Pick Five guarantee of $5,000 and a $25,000 guarantee to the triple pool in race five. First post time for the matinee is set for 12:00pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
