Mae Smith celebrated her first lifetime training victory on Friday afternoon, April 5 at Buffalo Raceway as she sent out her 11-year-old trotter Pepin Coolie ($7.60) to win the $10,000 seventh race in 2:00.4.
After a lengthy respite, winter returned to western New York as persistent snow and wind kept things challenging for the Thursday afternoon (Feb. 15) card at Batavia Downs. The program featured the three top weekly classes and two big efforts from the meet’s leading drivers.
Brett Beckwith, who ended the 2023 season as the seventh winningest driver in North America, is rolling again in 2024 and strutted his stuff at Batavia Downs on Thursday afternoon (Jan. 25) by winning five races on the card.
The first winter meet hosted by Batavia Downs in over two decades will close out its 15-date run on Monday (Feb. 27) with a nine-race card starting at 3 p.m. The early season session has produced record-breaking handles for the track but has also placed two of its regular drivers in lofty standings nationally among their peers. Kevin Cummings is currently the fifth leading
Driver Jim Morrill, Jr. achieved another major milestone in his stellar career at Batavia Downs on Monday when he drove Sportskeeper to an easy gate-to-wire, 1:56.1 victory in the seventh race to achieve his 8,000th lifetime win in the sulky.