While the heavily favored Ake Svanstedt stable entry was defeated in the first of the two New York Sire Stakes races at Saratoga Casino Hotel on Friday night, the second of the big stakes events went the way of Ake’s stable star Plunge Blue Chip (Muscle Mass-Dunk The Donato-Donato Hanover). Plunge Blue Chip came to town fresh off her victory in the $129,014 Hudson Trot Final at Yonkers when she scored a 1:53.1 win for Svanstedt. On Friday night, she and entry-mate Natalie Hanover (Dan Dube) went off at odds of 1-9 and lived up to the hype. Plunge Blue Chip made an easy lead and cruised to victory in 1:55.3 in her $89,950 division of the NY Sire Stakes for three year old trotting fillies. Tribute To Seven (Wally Hennessey) closed sharply to finish second and breakup what would have been a one-two finish for the Svanstedt trainees as Natalie Hanover ended up settling for third on Friday. The win was the 14thin 20 career starts for Plunge Blue Chip who now has career earnings of more than $750,000 as her standout sophomore campaign continues.
The $91,350 division of the NYSS on Friday went to Linda Toscano’s Repentance (Chapter Seven-Swan Hot Mama-Donato Hanover). Svanstedt featured another coupled entry of talented fillies as Fury Road and Lucky Ava went off at odds of 1-2 but It was Jim Morrill Jr. and Repentance that would steal the show, going coast to coast with relative ease as the sophomore filly recorded her fifth win in ten seasonal starts. A Gift For You (Marcus Miller) closed quickly to finish second while stablemates Lucky Ava (Ake Svanstedt) and Fury Road (Dan Dube) had to settle for third and fourth, respectively. Repentance stopped the timer in 1:57 for the third win in her last four starts in New York Sire Stakes competition. Repentance went off at odds of 9-5.
Live racing continues on Saturday night at Saratoga with a first post time of 6:45pm.
Mike Sardella
Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino
