There were three divisions of the second leg for the John Mongeon Sr. Memorial Trotting Series contested on Monday afternoon (May 17) at Saratoga Casino Hotel. Trotters had their final chance to acquire points towards punching tickets to the $30,000-plus final.
The leg-one dominant force cemented his series favourite status as Dewey Arnold again proved much the best. The Dave Dewhurst trainee came into leg two on a four-race win streak and left it with five-consecutive victories under his belt. Jimmy Devaux piloted the three-year-old to yet another decisive, front-stepping romp in his $10,000 division of the series as he stopped the timer in a dazzling 1:55.4. Battle Queen finished second to Dewey Arnold for the second-consecutive week and locked her spot in next week’s Final. Dewey Arnold gave Devaux one of his five driving wins on the matinee program.
Monday marked the kickoff of the eighth annual John Mongeon Sr. Memorial Trotting Series at Saratoga Casino Hotel. The series, which went on hiatus in 2020, is back this year and during Monday’s matinee, there were three $10,000 divisions of the first leg.
Coming into the day, the clear horse to beat in the series was Dewey Arnold. The Dave Dewhurst-trained three-year-old was back in town following an overwhelmingly successful stint at Pocono that saw the sophomore rattle off three straight victories, including his most recent one which came in a career-best 1:53.2. Dewey Arnold had one thing going against him coming into the series though. He made breaks in each of his two starts at the Spa this spring which potentially made him vulnerable in the series. The betting public wasn’t concerned about the breaks though and bet the talented trotter down to odds of 1-9 in the first division of the series contested on Monday. The bettors were proven correct as Jimmy Devaux guided Dewey
Eazy Pass justified her backing as the heaviest sort of favourite by brushing to the lead nearing the three-quarters and going on to tie her mark of 1:54.3 in the $40,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for sophomore trotting fillies Tuesday afternoon (April 27) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
P L Olivia was hustled away at odds of 32-1 and put outsiders in behind her before the :27.3 quarter, and she went on to park second choice quarter-mover Trip Sevens, leaving that rival out in the air past the :56.4 half. Eazy Pass, whom Dexter Dunn had moved out behind Trip Sevens perhaps in anticipation of her clearing, thus had the second-over journey, but before the 1:26 third panel the victorious filly was on her way to the lead, which she maintained to the wire. Eazy Pass won by four lengths over the resilient P L Olivia, with Frankly My Dear third.