For Opinion, click here for View from the Racetrack Grandstand

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Gia's Surreal Captures Buffalo Raceway Feature

HAMBURG, N.Y. --- Gia's Surreal is quickly becoming the dominate damsel at Buffalo Raceway as she collected her second straight win in the $11,500 Open Pace for the fillies and mares with a solid half length victory over Hey Kobe is 1:54.2 on Wednesday night (July 1).

Just making her third start of her 4-year-old campaign, the favored Gia's Surreal ($4.60) had little problem rallying to get the victory.

Lady London (Ray Fisher Jr.) set the splits with times of :28.0, :57.0 and 1:25.2. Midway down the backstretch the final time, Gia's Surreal was stuck behind dull cover and had to tip three wide with a panel to go.

In the stretch, Gia's Surreal (John Cummings Jr.) was just too powerful for Hey Kobe (Drew Monti) and Lady London who had to settle for second and third respectively.

Co-owned by trainer Jim Graham, Ed Peron, Tom Mariano and Lee Winters, the victory moved Gia's Surreal (So Surreal-Nancy Irene) seasonal earnings to $12,380 and $163,940 in her career.

The heavily-favored Victoria Swan ($2.90) played 'catch me if you can' in the $10,000 Class A-AA Handicapped Trot and no one was up to the task.

Scoring from the rail, Victoria Swan had little trouble in turning back Empire Earl N (Jim Morrill Jr.) by a half length in 1:58.4. Call My Broker (Dan Yetman) took the show spot.

After relinquishing the lead early on to Empire Earl N, Victoria Swan used a big backside brush to take command and never looked back. A :58.1 last half was enough to dash the hopes of the remaining six participants. 

Co-owned by RBH Ventures Inc. and Spagnola Racing LLC, it was the third triumph in 10 tries for Victoria Swan (Swan For All-Victoria Sahbra). Trained by Sabrina Shaw, the 5-year-old mare now has $16,854 in winnings in 2020 and $113,854 lifetime.

 Monti and Fisher Jr. finished the evening with triples while Morrill Jr., Billy Davis Jr. all doubled. Rich Mays, Darrin Monti and Gerry Sarama each conditioned two winners.

 Racing will continue on Saturday evening beginning at 6 p.m. with a 13-race program slated.

 For more information including the latest, news, race replays, entries and results, go to www.buffaloraceway.com