Scarborough, Maine – Harness racing at Scarborough Downs begrudgingly heads into the home stretch as the summer portion of what has become an historic meeting approaches this weekend’s Sunday matinee finale, but the furious action and record breaking performances certainly refuse to go quietly.
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Seaside
Yankee
and
driver
Shawn
Gray
clear to
the lead
at the
midway
point in
his
track
record
equaling
performance
at
Scarborough
Downs on
Thursday
--
(Photo
by Derek
Davis).
|
Today (September 4) Seaside Yankee and driver Shawn Gray trotted their way into the local record books by equaling the 2:00.2 standard set for four-year-old gelded trotters by Keystone Dallas (Jason Bartlett) during the 2007 season.
This effort marked the tenth time in 2008 that a track record has been set or equaled on Scarborough’s lightening quick seaside oval.
Owned by Bruce Inch of Vernon, Maine, Seaside Yankee overtook the lead near the half after tracking the early speed of Four Starz Nuts. The tandem of teamster and trotter then sprinted away through an unhurried back-half to trip the tele-timer to claim the track record equaling benchmark.
It was the fourth career victory from only 8 lifetime starts for the precocious four-year-old Conway Hall rookie who sports a speedy 1:58.1 speed standard recorded just two starts prior at Rockingham’s big mile track.
In other action at the Downs, Jason Mac Dougall held the hot hand on Thursday evening by claiming four driving wins on the twelve race program working out the winning strategies for Nipas One (1:59.2), You Little Tart (2:02.1) and My Buddy Two (1:59.1) before claiming the grand slam by driving My Ding A Ling in-hand to the wire.
Scarborough Downs concludes the summer portion of its meet with performances on Friday and Saturday evening at 4:15 pm (EDT). The popular Sunday matinee goes at 1:30 pm and this week will feature the Professional Harness Drivers Challenge showcasing the talents of Jason Bartlett, Jordon Stratton, Brewer Adams, Walter Cheverie, Drew and Heath Campbell, Rob Dinning and Kevin Switzer.
