Track record rewritten by ex-New Zealand pacer

Plainville, MA — The harness racing track record for aged pacing geldings at Plainridge Park was rewritten on Thursday (July 3) afternoon when Vintage Cheddar N (Betterthancheddar) stopped the clock in 1:49 flat in the day’s $25,000 featured pace and registered the fastest pacing mile of the meet to this point.

Vintage Cheddar N (Mitchell Cushing) got away right behind the front-running Life’s A Puzzle (Nick Graffam) who was pushed through fast early fractions of :26.3 and :53.3 by the parked-out Grey Horizons (Drew Monti). Positions remained unchanged moving up the backstretch until Grey Horizons started to fade and the back of the pack began to swing two and three-wide around him and into contention.

Life’s A Puzzle continued to pace well around the last turn, but so did Vintage Cheddar N, who was about to make his move heading into the stretch. Vintage Cheddar N tipped and advanced incrementally closer to Life’s A Puzzle as the pair made their way down the lane. The battle continued all the way to the line where Vintage Cheddar N got up by a nose to win in 1:49, which set the track record and also a new lifetime mark for the 10-year-old gelded victor.

It was the 25th lifetime win for Vintage Cheddar N ($6.20) who is owned by his trainer Amanda Kelley, in partnership with VIP Internet Stable.

VINTAGE CHEDDAR REPLAY

The $19,000 upper-level conditioned pace was won by Ahi Sunshine (Aaron Byron) who got away third before pulling first-over at the half to pace alongside of the leading Instant Replay (Kevin Switzer Jr.) in a quick :27.1 third quarter. By the top of the stretch, Ahi Sunshine had taken the lead and then held off all comers in the stretch to win by a nose in 1:51.2, in a five-horse photo that revealed all within one-half length of each other. The time was the season’s best for the winner.

Ahi Sunshine ($11.00) is owned by Janie Kellogg and trained by Jackie Greene.

Scoring two wins apiece, driver Mitchell Cushing and trainer Jackie Greene led their respective categories for the day.

Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday (July 7) at 4 p.m. and there will be a $1,749 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race six.

Free full past performance programs and race replays for all live racing days at Plainridge Park can be found at plainridgeparkcasino.com.

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

by Tim Bojarski, for Plainridge Park