Blazing Home N scorches to impressive win

Plainville, MA — Blazing Home N (Rock N Roll Heaven) left the field looking at his heels as he darted to an impressive harness racing win in the featured $25,000 Open pace at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Oct. 16) afternoon.

Blazing Home N (Larry Stalbaum) took the lead from Mullinax (Brett Beckwith) passing the :26.4 quarter and slowed the half to :55.1, but the pace would change drastically from that point on. Blazing Home N got into gear on the backstretch and reached third base in 1:22.3 while Binge On Yankee (Kevin Switzer Jr.) was high and outside, swinging for the fences. But the Yankee struck out as Blazing Home N extended his lead from a length, to two at the top of the stretch, and then bolted home clear by 3-¼ lengths at the light and won in 1:50 flat.

BLAZING HOME REPLAY

It was the sixth win of the year for fan favorite Blazing Home N ($3.00), who is owned and trained by his driver, Larry Stalbaum.

There was also a $22,500 upper-level conditioned pace that saw Hunting Zone avenge two close seconds in his last two starts.

Hunting Zone (Brett Beckwith) set up shop on the point and scooted through quarters of :26.4, :54.2 and 1:21.4 as Rocknroll Runa A (Larry Stalbaum) stalked from the pocket. At the top of the stretch, Rocknroll Runa A popped the deuce and took his best shot, but after battling to the wire, Hunting Zone was on target and won by one-quarter length in 1:50.

It was the seventh win of the year for Hunting Zone ($8.00) who is owned by Pollock Racing and trained by Jeff Cullipher.

Mitchell Cushing accounted for six winners on Thursday, four as a driver and two as a trainer. He won with Handlelikeaporsche (1:51.1, $5.00), Muse La Rouge (1:53, $6.20), Royalty’s Dreamer (1:52.4, $10.60) and Negotiator (1:52.3, $3.60), the last two accounting for his training wins.

Jeff Cullipher also had two training wins.

There was a huge upset in the day’s second race when One Eyed Delilah won by 2-¼ lengths in 1:57.3 at 38-1 and returned $79.80 for a $2 win ticket.

The Jackpot Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta was also hit in the sixth race when the single unique combination of 7-3-1-5-8 returned a handsome $2,046.62 for a 20-cent wager.

Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Friday (Oct. 17) at 2 p.m.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