Batavia: Racine Bell smashes track record

Racine Bell, who equaled the 4-year-old pacing mare world record of 1:48 1/5 at the Meadowlands in June and has been dominant in the Open class at Yonkers Raceway since spring, shipped into Batavia Downs on Wednesday night (Aug. 4) and demolished the existing track record for aged pacing mares after a dominant gate to wire victory in 1:51 3/5 in the $11,200 Mares Open pace.

Jason Bartlett took no prisoners off the gate and set torrid fractions of 27 2/5, 55 4/5, and 1:23 3/5, extending her lead at each station while the rest of the field tried to keep up. But that was not going to happen on this night, as Racine Bell accelerated around the last turn and put a copious amount of real estate between her and the competition. In full flight down the stretch, Bartlett urged on Racine Bell, who responded and paced home in 28 seconds flat to win by eight lengths.

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The previous track record was 1:53 set by Xenia Hanover in 2013. The 1:51 3/5 clocking was also only two-fifths of a second off the all-time pacing track record of 1:51 1/5 set by Aracache Hanover in 2011.

It was the 10th win of the year in only 16 starts for Racine Bell ($2.10), and she pushed her 2021 earnings to $174,050 for owners Chris Lawton and Dale Lawton. David Dewhurst trains the winner.

--press release (Batavia)--