by Michael Chamberlain, Vernon Downs Publicity
The Thursday night $8,000 featured pace at Vernon Downs had
a tough field of five that was led by morning-line favorite Love You Bye (Jimmy
Whittemore), but when all was said and done, the winner was Asset Management
(Western Hanover-Serious Comfort) in a time of 1:53.
Love You Bye had set the early pace through a quarter of
27.2 and a half of 56.1 before Ugly Betty (John Macdonald) grabbed the lead on
the backstretch and led past three-quarters in 1:23.1. Ugly Betty actually led
into the stretch before the closers came calling. Asset Management (Fern Paquet
Jr.) had to go four-wide when the field hit the top of the stretch, but had
momentum built up as the field reached deep stretch. She surged past
longshot Ubettorbeturlife (Chris Lems), who had taken the lead shortly
before the wire, and was up in the nick of time for a win. Love You Bye
had actually been relegated to last before re-rallying up the inside to get
third.
The complete order of finish was: Asset Management,
Ubettorbeturlife, Love You Bye, Ugly Betty, and Seascape Hanover.
Asset Management is owned by J&M Racing of Finksburg, Maryland.
The trainer is Alexandra Berube.
Asset Management was just one of three winners
for driver Fern Paquet Jr. on the Thursday night program. He also won the
seventh race with Fresh Squeezed (American Ideal-Squeeze Me) and the tenth
race with Grand Majorette (Art Major-Grandiose Gal).
Live racing will resume at Vernon Downs with a 12-race
program. The seventh race is the $10,000 feature, an Open I Trot.
The 5-2 morning-line favorite is Evil Urges with Jimmy Whittemore
slated to drive. Post time is 6:45pm.
