$5 and $17 winners spark late-kicking upsets

Plainville, MA —  A pair of upper-level conditioned harness racing events valued at $20,000 each topped the bill at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Sept. 4) afternoon and both winners made fast finishes from off the pace.

The first was a trot and Pepper Wow (Crazy Wow) matched his season’s best effort with the win.

Wall Street Edge (Brett Beckwith) grabbed the lead and took the field to the half in :57 flat. Then came the outer-flow led by Busting With Pride (Bruce Ranger) who was followed by Pepper Wow (Drew Campbell) in the live tow. Moving up the backstretch, Busting With Pride continued to pressure Wall Street Edge while Pepper Wow was content to draft until he made his move.

That came at seven-eighths where Campbell tipped Pepper Wow three-deep, who then bolted down the lane under a line drive to win by 1-½ lengths in 1:54.1.

PEPPER WOW REPLAY

Pepper Wow ($5.00) is owned by Earl and Kathy Beaman and Shirley Michaud and trained by Ivan Davies.

Then in the fillies and mares pace, the overlooked Checkpoint Chatter (Always A Virgin) turned some heads as she upset the field.

Checkpoint Chatter (Jim Hardy) got away seventh as Side Piece (Bruce Ranger) and Seaside Tina (Brett Beckwith) traded leads to the quarter in :26 even. Seaside Tina finally settled on the lead and got to the half in :54.1. Beckwith kept his foot on the gas going to three-quarters, and Seaside Tina opened up a three length lead as a weak outer-flow composed of Beantown Ace (Nick Graffam) and Checkpoint Chatter struggled to keep up. But that soon changed as they rounded the bend, where Seaside Tina was tiring quickly and Hardy had Checkpoint Chatter revved and rolling four-wide as the race entered the stretch. From there it was all Checkpoint Chatter, who swelled up late and flew to the line on top by 2-½ lengths in 1:53.1.

CHECKPOINT CHATTER REPLAY

Checkpoint Chatter ($17.00) is owned by Upland Farm and trained by Don Guidette Jr.

Driver Brett Beckwith won two races on the card while 11 different trainers each won one apiece.

There was a big winner in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race six. The single unique combination of 4-1-3-8-5 returned $6,437.96 for the 20-cent wager.

Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday (Sept. 8) at 2 p.m.

Free full past performance programs and race replays for all live racing days at Plainridge Park can be found at plainridgeparkcasino.com.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by Tim Bojarski, for Plainridge Park