Milestone night looms at Batavia Downs

Batavia, NY — Wednesday (Dec. 3) night at Batavia Downs could prove to be monumental for two resident drivers who are on the cusp of reaching career milestones at the lines.

Perennial driving leader Kevin Cummings currently sits at 4,996 victories and needs only four more tallies to reach the 5,000 win plateau, while Joe Chindano Jr. has already won 995 times during his career and is looking for five more firsts to reach the 1,000 mark.

Both drivers are carded in 13 of the 15 races at The Downs on Wednesday and will face off against each other 12 times during the night. And the number of live drives both have on the program could easily provide either, or both, the amount of wins they need to reach their respective goals.

Chindano is slated to sit behind four morning line favorites including Lorraine Smoke, Echo Demeautis Fr, Said N Done AS and Lizzy Lite Hands as well as two other second choice selections.

Cummings will steer two early odds picks including Face The Shadows in the night’s feature race and Bet On Blake, but will also navigate the fortunes of a total of six second choices, who all have big chances to win.
Although there are still six nights of racing left in the 2025 summer/fall meet at Batavia, it would appear that the dash title has all but been decided. And although both Cummings and Chindano are not mathematically eliminated, it would be an uphill battle to move up to the lead for either one of them.

Chindano is currently in second place with 76 wins and Cummings is in third with 75. But both are well behind Drew Monti, who reigns as the leader with a total of 97 victories since the horses reconvened in Genesee County back in July.

Post time for the first race on Wednesday at Batavia Downs is at 6 p.m.

by Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs