Ladies take center stage in NYSS at Buffalo

HAMBURG, N.Y. — The ladies take centerstage at Buffalo Raceway on Wednesday afternoon (May 25) as all but two races on the 11-race program that begins at 1:30 p.m. will feature the harness racing fillies and mares.

The main events will be a pair of $58,100 battles in New York Sire Stakes for the 3-year-old filly pacers while the undercard has two $15,000 Excelsior A races to go along with the usual $15,000 Open for the distaff pacers.

Gotthegreenlight (American Ideal-Bet On Luck) is the defending 2-year-old NYSS filly pacing champion and she begins her march towards another crown with an appointment in the second race.

Drawing the five hole in the field of six, Gotthegreenlight (Jason Bartlett) has just one start on the 2022 campaign, that being a fourth place finish in the W.N. Reynolds on May 6 at Yonkers Raceway. But the 2021 season was spectacular as she won 8-of-12 starts and amassed $248,654 in earnings including wins in the Renaissance Stakes at Freehold and a victory in a Kindergarten Stakes at The Meadowlands.

Gotthegreenlight’s biggest threat is expected to come from American Ticket (American Ideal-Free Ticket) who’ll start from the two post.

American Ticket (Mark MacDonald) has been in the money in all four of her appearances in 2022 and beat Gotthegreenlight in the W.N. Reynolds Stakes at Yonkers on May 6, winning in a snappy 1:53.4.

The remainder of the field includes NYSS finalist from last year Kele Kele (Tyler Buter), local favorite Tres Chic Bluechip (Kyle Cummings), April Angel (Jim Morrill Jr.) and Hamptons Babe (Drew Monti).

In the second division, set for the seventh race, Joyride Hanover seeks to have a ‘joyride’ over the Buffalo Raceway half-mile oval as she’ll score from the rail for Bartlett.

A winner of $184,958 last season, Joyride Hanover (American Ideal-JK Higher Power) collected victories in the $145,100 Matron Stakes at Dover Downs along with establishing a new track record at Monticello with a 1:54.2 clocking in her division of the NYSS. The R. Nifty Norman trainee arrives with a pair of third place finishes at Yonkers and Harrah’s Philadelphia in her only two starts in 2022.

The remainder of the field, who have combined lifetime earnings of $187,819, include Fly Like An Angel (Mark MacDonald), The Hunt Is On (Leon Bailey), Patsville (Buter), Superbly (Jim Morrill Jr.) and Flip The Script (Monti).

The Buffalo Raceway track record is 1:53.3 shared by Mosquito Blue Chip (2015) and Gia’s Surreal (2019).

A pair of $15,000 Excelsior A Series races will go off as the third and fifth on the card.

There’s a $5,000 guaranteed pool in the Pick 5 kicking off in the second race.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Brian J. Mazurek, for Buffalo Raceway