After a scratch, the featured field on Sunday afternoon was down to six participants at Saratoga Casino Hotel. The six-pack of Open trotters slugged it out for their share of the $15,000 purse and Mandeville (Majestic Son) emerged victorious with leading driver Billy Dobson in the bike. Mandeville was a two-time Open winner at the Spa in 2018 but scored his first win of the season just last week when he stopped the timer in 1:54.2, the fastest clocking for any trotter at Saratoga this year. Mandeville was up into Open company on Sunday and brushed up to take over the lead approaching the half mile pole and once he made the lead, the Don Billings-trained trotter never looked back. Mandeville withstood heavy pressure from the race’s favorite Bobs Hope (Jay Randall) who came into Sunday on a three-race win streak in the Open. Mandeville proved up to the task and rebuffed Bobs Hope who still earned a second-place finish. Longshot Cartier Volo was third in the mile clocked in 1:55.3 over a track labeled ‘good.’ Mandeville paid $9.50 to win and led an exacta and triple that returned $21.40 and $126.50, respectively. With the victory, Mandeville becomes just the fifth horse at the Spa to win an Open Trot this season, a level that has been dominated by two horses that he defeated on Sunday, Bobs Hope and Cash Me Out.
Live racing resumes on Wednesday afternoon at Saratoga with a matinee beginning at 12:00 Noon.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
