All-age trot record set at Pompano

Pompano Beach, FL, December 1, 2021 – In a track record performance on Tuesday night at Pompano Park, harness racing driver Rick Plano’s own Toy’s For You scored a three-peat win in the $14,200 Open Handicap Trot.

The splendid five-year-old gelded son of Airzoom Lindy used different tactics this night to score in gate-to-wire fashion, carding fractions of :27, :55.2 and 1:23.2 before hitting the wire in 1:52.2, sharing the track record in the program page with Wind Of The North, who trotted in that identical 1:52.2 time back in 2016.

Technically, though, Toy’s For You did trot the fastest mile in the 58-year history of the track as the sophisticated timing device had him on the line in 1:52.472, narrowly slicing 18/1000ths of a second off Wind Of The North’s official clocking of 1:52.490.

The victory, measuring 2 1/2 lengths, came at the expense of Muscles For Life (Wally Hennessey) with The Lionking AS (Kevin Wallis) third, another half-length away. Celebrity Pegasus finished fourth with Sooo Handsome fifth in the classy, million dollar quintet.

So powerful was this performance that, once Toy’s For You uncharacteristically made the top a few strides off the wings, positions remained unchanged throughout the entire route.

TOYS FOR YOU REPLAY

In speaking of the change of tactics this night, Plano remarked, “Without question, this is one of the best horses I have ever had the pleasure of owning, training and driving. He is really feeling good these days. He’s very versatile and he proved that tonight with his speed off the wings. He’s shown he can leave in :27 and a piece and come home in :27 and a piece. These horses, as much as we’d like to believe, are not machines, so we relish these times when they are as good as they are. I kind of wanted to show that he’s not just a one-dimension horse coming from off the pace. He can leave with the best of them, as he did tonight!”

The win was number 11 this semester for Toy’s For You in 35 starts and pushed his 2021 earnings to within a couple of hundred dollars of $100,000.

Off at 3 to 5, Toy’s For You returned $3.20 to his multitude of faithful.

The $12,600 Open II trot went, in a “bang-bang” finish, to Simply Volo, driven by Wally Hennessey, in 1:55.

With the first four horses just noses apart on the wire, this seven-year-old altered son of Crazed exploded from last heading into the final bend to squeak by Anchors Away (Braxten Boyd) and the pacesetting BJ Lorado (Tyler Jones) with Cash Hit yet another nose back in fourth. Darty picked up the nickel in this epic finish.

It was BJ Lorado slicing through panels of :27.3, :56.4 and 1:25.3 and, turning for home, the quartet fanned across the track with Simply Volo, widest of all,

Trained by Joe Pavia, Jr. for Neal Oxenberg, Pint Size Racing, Jeffrey Nanna and Jeffrey Hess, Simply Volo reached a milestone with his 25th career win–fifth this season–to spike his earnings to $382,084. He’s banked $49,063 this year.

Simply Volo returned $19.00 to his faithful.

SIMPLY VOLO REPLAY

Hennessey, by the way, won six races on Tuesday and besides Simply Volo, scored with Next Big Thing ($2.80), Starlit Thiswanday ($4.20), Lori’s Rock Star ($7.40), Steel Schooner ($4.20) and J-S Jasper ($3.20).

Racing continues as Pompano Park presents its first Wednesday of the season with a $15,000 Pick-4 guarantee (industry low 12% takeout) and a Super Hi-5 finale jackpot of $19,671.

Post time is set for 7:20 p.m.

For full race results, click here.

by John Berry for Pompano Park