Major milestone win for driver Jay Randall

Plainville, MA — When driver Jay Randall won the 4th race with Sweet Street Lou (Sweet Lou) in 1:54.4, $8.60) at Plainridge Park on Tuesday (July 16) afternoon, he reached the 5,000-win plateau for his harness racing career that now spans 46 years.

Randall, a resident of Ballston Spa, New York, started his driving career in 1977 at Saratoga Raceway and five years later, won the 1982 Johnny Page Award as the up-and-coming driver there. Over the years, Randall has switched his base of operations several times, moving to Monticello, then Yonkers and then the Meadowlands, before returning to Saratoga in 2005 where he has been a leading driver ever since.

Since 2019, Randall has split his summers by also competing at Plainridge Park and has been very successful at both tracks.

As a regular member of the Plainridge driver colony, Randall has racked up 286 wins that earned their connections over $4.1 million in purses. His best single year at The Ridge was 2022 when he finished third in the standings with 100 wins and just under $1.5 million in earnings.

SWEET STREET LOU REPLAY

The 63-year-old Randall had his single best overall season for wins in 2019 when he hung 238 victories on his competitors. Since 2018 alone, Randall has won $10.5 million in purses, and that while being sidelined for an extended period of time in 2021 when he was injured in a racing accident at Saratoga Raceway.

This year, Randall is tied as the seventh leading driver at Plainridge with 17 wins and is tied as the fourth leading driver at Saratoga with 75 wins.

Randall notched his 4,000th driving win in August of 2018 and surpassed $30 million in lifetime earnings in 2023. That number is now in excess of $32 million.

The feature race Tuesday was the $20,000 Open Handicap for pacing fillies and mares where recently landed New Zealand import Turn The Page N (Vincent) got her first North American win in her first North American start and took a lifetime in the process.

Arizona (Brett Beckwith) led to the half in :55.2 before an outer flow formed, led by The Pantheist A (Shawn Gray), followed by Side Piece (Drew Monti) and then Turn The Page N (Ron Cushing). The Pantheist A had the lead at three-quarters before Side Piece drew alongside in the far turn. But it was Turn The Page N who tipped off cover and barrelled down the middle of the racetrack to gain the advantage at the line where she won in a career best 1:50.3.

Turn The Page N ($10.20) is owned by her trainer/driver Cushing, in partnership with Kevin Sywyk.

TURN THE PAGE N REPLAY

Driver Matty Athearn and trainer Jimmy Nickerson teamed up to win three races on the card to lead their respective categories for wins on Tuesday.

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Thursday (July 18) at 4 p.m.

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

by Tim Bojarski, for Plainridge Park