Squee Hanover takes first Open Trot

Squee Hanover (Crazed) continued the hot streak for his stable on Monday afternoon when the five year old won the Open Trot at Saratoga Casino Hotel for the first time in his harness racing career.

Coming in off of a wire-to-wire win in the $13,000 Winners Over for trotters last week, Squee Hanover stayed sharp with a front-running score in Monday’s $15,000 feature for driver Phil Fluet.

The Andy Gardner stable has been on a tear of late and scored its first Open win of the season when Squee Hanover flexed his muscles early on, getting to the top in 27.3 before reaching the half in 57.1. Dispatching a first-over challenge, Squee Hanover powered away after clicking off three quarters in 1:25.4.

The favorite Dewey Arnold (Jimmy Devaux) began to rev it up from the rear and came powering home in the stretch but fell just short, coming up second-best to Squee Hanover who stopped the timer in 1:55.2 in his first Open score. Dewey Arnold was the runner-up while Bucketlist Hanover (Larry Stalbaum) closed to be third.

SQUEE HANOVER REPLAY

Squee Hanover, who is owned by the Exceed Stables of Lamar, PA, paid $13.00 to win in the mild upset and led an exacta and triple that returned $68.50 and $504.

Gardner and Fluet teamed up for another score on Monday as well as young trotter Ready For Workout (Whataworkout) prevailed in his first start out of the Gardner barn to complete the double for his connections.

Live racing continues on Tuesday afternoon at Saratoga with a matinee kicking off at noon.

For full race results, click here.

by Mike Sardella, for Saratoga Raceway