Jim Doherty Jr. & Mike Merton have 3 wins on the card

May 26, 2022

It was an afternoon that saw Mike Merton bring home 3 winners for the second time this year, Bruce Aldrich had a double and trainer Jim Doherty Jr had an outstanding afternoon with 3 winners hailing from his barn.

Last week Racingtowardsadream was raging with trot but came up a little short, this week he was content to have the favorite Hadhatter Bluechip cut the mile. Recently claimed from the barn of Steve Ray and now in the Andrew Adamczyk stable he took the Open Trot 1 with a come from behind win over the favorite Hadhatter Bluechip by a 2 length winning margin over Hadhatter Bluechip in 1:58.1, his fastest winning time in over 2 years, finishing 3rd was Swizzle Hanover. It was first of 3 wins for Mike Merton

In the second division of the Open Trot saw a late scratch of Café Americano while scoring down, Shoot The Thrill made a miscue in the first turn and Judge Ken went off stride approaching the half. Bank Guard was on the front end where he likes to be and set the tempo of 29.3, 58.4 1:28.1, Jimmy Devaux was working hard on Swancredit at the ¾ stanza, with the urging he was able to make up 2 lengths disadvantage and clipped Bank Guard in the final strides to trip the timer in 1:59 for the win. It was the third win of the day for trainer Jim Doherty Jr.

Jim Doherty Jr. had a banner day with back-to-back training wins with Andreios Kardia 1:55.3 – $5.10 and he lit up the tote board with 25 – 1 Crews Hilltopper in 1:58.3 – $52.00. With the 3 wins for the day, it places Jim into 8th places for leading trainers with 20 wins for the season thus far.