Hot Summer Knight and ER Shane take Open Trots

March 23, 2022

Today’s card featured 2 races for Open trotters, Jim Taggart Jr. opted to go as far and as fast as he could with Chip Chip Conway by cutting the mile through even rated splits of 29.1, 59.4 1:28.4.  Enjoying the view sitting in the 2 hole was Hot Summer Knight who made his move in mid-stretch to rally on the inside to overtake Chip Chip Conway to win by a head in 1:58.4 followed by Warrawee Preferred (Kyle Dibenedetto) The heavy favorite Cinnamon Stick succumbed to being parked after his first over move well before the half and tired to finish 5.  Hot Summer Knight was driven to the win by Mike Merton and is trained by Todd Buter

In the second division, driver Jim Taggart Jr. used the same tactic as in the other Open trot with the same results, Taggart set the tempo and stayed on top until the lane where he was overtook by ER Shane who scored a 2 length victory in 1:58.4 for driver Bruce Aldrich, the 8 year old gelded son of Swan For All is trained by Laura Perino and is owned by driver Bruce Aldrich Jr. 4 of the 7 starters in the second open Trot were offspring of the Indiana’s Stallion Swan For All.

The next generation of young horsemen and horsewomen had a good day as Shawn Simmons had training and driving win with How Are Yee John in 1:58, it was Shawn’s first driving win of the year. Ashley Eldred scored a training win with Juniors Dew who won by 3 in 1:58.2, it was Ashely’s 5th training win of the season. Dry Ridge Ace made it 2 in a row off his win from today in 1:56.4 for trainer Al Annunziata. Bruce Aldrich Jr. had a driving double as he also won with Urbana Bayama in 1:59 for trainer Dan Gill.