Open winner upsets at 10-1 with fifth straight score

Summit City Sonny (Dover Dan) came into Sunday’s (March 19) Open Trot at Saratoga Casino Hotel riding as long of a harness racing win streak as any horse has had in the young season. Yet he still went off as a 10-1 longshot.

The Jesse McAssey trainee debuted at the Spa last year and enjoyed a good amount of success racing. The 2023 campaign started with a second-place finish for Summit City Sonny who quickly got into the win column the following week while competing in the winner of two but not more than five race lifetime condition.

From there, the four-year-old rattled off a total of four consecutive victories before stepping up into the Open for the first time on Sunday afternoon. Leon Bailey has been the regular reinsman for Summit City Sonny this season and piloted him aggressively in the $17,000 feature pulling first-over on Beerthirty K (Jimmy Devaux) who cruised through a comfortable first half of :58.3.

Summit City Sonny didn’t seem to pose much of a threat to the leader who clicked off three-quarters in 1:27.1. The McAssey trainee would not give in and just kept plugging away on the outside before wearing down Beerthirty K late in the game to prevail in his debut in the Open by a half a length in 1:57.2.

SUMMIT CITY SONNY REPLAY

Beerthirty K was the runner-up while Big Box Hanover (Matt Athearn), the winner of the previous two installments of the Open Trot, came from the back of the pack to finish third on Sunday.

Summit City Sonny, who is owned by his trainer Jesse McAssey in partnership with Adam Friedland, paid $23.60 to win in the upset and led an exacta and triple that returned $76.50 and $278.50, respectively.

Live racing continues on Monday afternoon at Saratoga with a matinee starting at noon.

For complete race results, click here.

by Mike Sardella, for Saratoga Raceway