by Michael Chamberlain, Vernon Downs Publicity
A Penny Earned (Conway Hall-Penny Dream) scored a win in the
$10,000 featured trot on Saturday night at Vernon Downs. However, the gelding
certainly did not have an easy time of it. A Penny Earned (Chris Lems) sat just
behind the leader, Mr. Web Page (Roman Lopez), through the opening quarter of
28.3. Just past the quarter mile mark, A Penny Earned rolled right past that
leader and assumed control himself. He continued to lead through a half mile in
58.2 and three quarters in 1:27. Once the field made the stretch, though, there
were plenty of challengers for A Penny Earned to hold off. My Revenuer (Truman
Gale) had the benefit of a first-over trip up the backstretch, but was never
able to surpass the leader in the stretch and had to settle for second. War
Hero (Howard Okusko Jr.) followed the cover of My Revenuer to get up into
contention, but the best he could do was a third place finish. A Penny
Earned finished the mile in 1:55.1 for the win. He is earned by Alfred
Ross, George Ducharme and Natalia Oliva of Massachusetts and Paul Fontaine of
Rhode Island. George Ducharme is also the trainer of A Penny Earned, who earned
his third win of the season at Vernon Downs. The complete order of finish was:
A Penny Earned, My Revenuer, War Hero, Mr. Web Page, Naughty Not Nice, Pollux
Blue Chip, and Evil Urges.
Live racing will resume on Sunday at Vernon Downs with a
special 11-race program. The featured event on Sunday is the $8,000 eighth
race, with Tell Us More installed as the 2-1 morning-line favorite. He comes to
Vernon Downs after winning twice in seven starts at The Meadowlands since the
beginning of May. Post time on Sunday afternoon is 1:15pm.
