Graffam wins five including feature trot

Plainville, MA — Plainridge Park’s leading harness racing driver, Nick Graffam, extended his lead in the dash win title race on Thursday (Aug. 28) afternoon when he won five races on the program, including a grand slam to start off the card.

Graffam won the pre-card non-betting 2-year-old $12,500 Romper Room pace with Forwhomthebelltolls (1:55.4) before sweeping the first three races of the regular betting card with Fairytale Moni (1:58.1, $4.40), Treacherous Idol (1:56.2, $3.00) and Bill Bauer (1:54.3, $4.20).

Graffam finished out his five by steering Sea Can (Muscle Mass) to victory in the $22,500 featured trot.

Sea Can grabbed the lead from his pylon position start and then led the entire mile. With Wall Street Edge (Brett Beckwith) following closely, Sea Can stopped the clock in :27, :56.3 and 1:24.4 before rounding the last turn. Wall Street Edge tried to gain in the stretch, but came up short as Sea Can scored his sixth win of the year in 1:54.

SEA CAN REPLAY

Sea Can ($3.60) is owned by Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi and trained by Joe Nelson.

Nelson and the Burke connections also won the undercard pace which was a $20,000 upper lever conditioned event for fillies and mares with Intothemysticmoon (Artspeak).

Kevin Switzer Jr. teamed Intothemysticmoon and took a similar path to victory. Grabbing the lead off the gate, Intothemysticmoon set fractions of :26.1, :55.3 and 1:23.2 while Seaside Tina (Mitchell Cushing) shadowed her every stride from the pocket. In the lane, the Seaside Tina battled, but Intothemysticmoon turned her away to win in 1:51.3.

INTOTHEMYSTICMOON REPLAY

Intothemysticmoon ($10.80) is owned by Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi and Phillip Collura.

Joe Nelson, along with Geroge Ducharme, Paul Kelley and Mitchell Cushing, were all members of the Thursday two-win trainers club.

Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday (Sept. 1) at 2 p.m. with a $2,771 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race six. Please note that the new 2 p.m. post time will be in effect from now through the end of October.

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 entries, click here: US Trotting entries.

by Tim Bojarski, for Plainridge Park