Monti and Cummings win half the card at Batavia Downs

Batavia, NY — Driving hat tricks registered by Drew Monti and Kyle Cummings comprised six of the 12 wins charted on Tuesday (Jan. 20) afternoon at Batavia Downs, and two of those harness racing winners returned rather handsome mutuels.

Monti won the first of two co-featured $7,500 paces with April Hill High, who led at every station before turning for home and bolting away by 4-¾ lengths to win in 1:59.4. April Hill High ($7.48) is owned by EL Dorado Stables and Mike Torcello and trained by Sam Smith.

APRIL HILL HIGH AND DREW MONTI REPLAY

Monti, Smith and El Dorado hooked up again later to smile for a picture with Mcnatural L (2:03) who surprised punters with a $31.54 payout. Monti completed his triple with Kristen Torre’s Albright (2:01.4, $9.34) who tripped-out to a narrow victory.

Kyle Cummings’ winners started out heavily backed with Carl Cummings’ Mc Man (2:00.3) paying $4.04 and Tulsa Bell (2:02.1) returning $5.86. But he finished his triad severely overlooked with Fashion On A Star (2:00.4) who paid a whopping $54.24. Tulsa Bell and Fashion On A Star were a training double for Tammy Cummings, who matched Sam Smith for top conditioning honors on Tuesday.

The other co-featured $7,500 pace was won by Ilikemebettor A (Matty Athearn), who got a live second-over tow behind Woodmere Fenn (Leon Bailey) in chase of Mach Silver (Brett Beckwith) to the stretch before tipping and taking off to the line in front by two in 1:59.1, which was the fastest mile of the day that was fraught with arctic temperatures, 40 MPH wind gusts and persistent snow squalls.

Ilikemebettor A ($6.54) is owned by Bob Kluchevitz and trained by Zach Gray.

ILIKEMEBETTOR A REPLAY

In the card’s fourth race, the venerable Mr. Cool Seaeyre N won his fifth straight win going back to last year, which was also his 67th lifetime score. He went gate to wire unabated in 2:02.4 and paid $3.18 for owners Alex Brandstatter Jr. and Candace Brandstatter-Hall, who also trains the 14-year-old phenom.

Live racing will resume at Batavia Downs on Thursday (Jan. 22) at 3:00 p.m.

Free full card past performance programs for every live card of racing at Batavia can always be downloaded at The Downs’ website (bataviadownsgaming.com) under the “Live Racing” tab. Then you can watch all the races live as they happen for free on the Batavia Downs YouTube page.

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

by Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs