Big Box Hanover delivers fourth straight Plainridge win

Plainville, MA — Big Box Hanover’s last three starts at Plainridge Park resulted in top-class Open wins, and after staying home at The Spa for his most recent outing, the 7-year-old gelded son of Uncle Peter-Box Of Dreams returned to The Ridge to deliver more Massachusetts mayhem to the harness racing field in the $25,000 Open Handicap trotting feature on Thursday (Nov. 7) afternoon.

Matty Athearn blasted to the front with Big Box Hanover and split the breeze for the pocket-sitting Snowpiercer (Brett Beckwith) through quarters of :27.2 and :56.1. When the race turned into the backstretch for the last half, Big Box Hanover started to pull away and opened up a three-length advantage to three-quarters and extended that gap to four by the top of the stretch. When they turned for home, “Matty Ice” was sitting chilly as Big Box Hanover delivered another victory, this time by 3-½ lengths in 1:54.

BIG BOX HANOVER REPLAY

On the strength of his ninth win of the year, Big Box Hanover ($6.80) has now earned $137,205 for his owner/trainer Larry Stalbaum.

In the secondary featured $20,500 upper-level conditioned trot, Busting With Pride (Resolve, Brett Beckwith) sat third while Intl Blockade (Bruce Ranger) marched off quarters of :28, :56.2 and 1:25.1. At that station, Busting With Pride got shuffled back to fourth, but pulled three-deep in the last turn before hooking up with Intl Blockade and Conrad Dipoggio It (Jay Randall) at the top of the stretch. From there, the 22-1 Busting With Pride tracked down both opponents and won in a photo by a mere nose with a lifetime best clocking of 1:55.

BUSTING WITH PRIDE REPLAY

Busting With Pride ($47.40) is owned by Kellogg Racing and Jackie Greene Stables and trained by Jackie Greene.

Athearn and Beckwith both had two wins on Thursday while 10 different trainers each won one race apiece.

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Nov. 7) at 1 p.m. and there will be an $1,163 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race six.Free full past performance programs for all live racing days at Plainridge Park can be downloaded from their website under the “racing” tab.

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

by Tim Bojarski, for the Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts