Ordained charges home to win

Ordained (Father Patrick) won the final Open Trot of the 2025 season at Saratoga Casino Hotel in his third local harness racing start.

Coming to town for trainer Larry Stalbaum late in the year, Ordained enjoyed a monster campaign in which he earned more than $200,000 in ’25. Coming out as a five year old this season, Ordained hit the board in the Open on a few occasions but dropped down in company to record his first win last month.

Following a third-place finish in his return to the $18,000 feature last week, Ordained started from post four in Monday’s installment of the Open Trot.

Billy Dobson took back in the early going and Ordained got away fourth in the six-horse feature. In what was developing as a closer’s race after first-half fractions of 26.4 and 56 seconds were posted, Ordained made his move approaching the three-quarter pole and was up to confront the race’s favorite Morning Edition (Wally Hennessey) who took over the lead at three-quarters.

Ordained tracked that one down in the stretch coming on late to register his third win of the season and second in the Open since coming to town last fall.

Morning Edition was the runner-up in the feature for the second consecutive week while But Why (Jimmy Devaux) lengthened his “on the board” streak by coming on to finish third.

ORDAINED REPLAY

Ordained, who went off at odds of 7-2, is owned by Gary and Tracey Smith.

Live racing continues on Tuesday with a matinee that begins at 12pm.

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

by Mike Sardella, for Saratoga Raceway