Buffalo: Liberty Style rings the bell in her first career outing

It was the first start of her career, and Liberty Style ($3.10) started it in grand style by demolishing the field in the $112,100 New York Sire Stakes for 2-year-old pacing fillies at Buffalo Raceway on Wednesday afternoon (June 18). She beat stablemate Bueckers by 5 3/4 widening lengths in an impressive 1:57 1/5 over the fast track.

With an early scuffle to the lead, Ev Does It took control as Liberty Style and Bueckers followed along through splits of 28 4/5 and 58 2/5.

Those wicked fractions proved to be the downfall for Ev Does It as driver Jason Bartlett tipped Liberty Style out just before three-quarters and took off from there, blitzing the field down the stretch and using a 28 second final quarter to celebrate her maiden victory. Stablemate Bueckers (Kevin Cummings) took second-place honors with American Cheese (Colin Kelly) third.

Co-owned by trainer Andrew Stafford and Bonnie Benson, Liberty Style (American Ideal-Fly In Style) earned a healthy $56.050 check in her racing debut.

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In the lone $20,000 Excelsior Series race, Twenty Seven ($7.60) used the home track advantage and beat Delightville Diva by 1 1/4 lengths in 2:01 4/5.

Happy Court (Colin Kelly) showed the way through the first three panels with splits of 30 3/5, 1:00 4/5 and 1:31 2/5, Twenty Seven sat fourth and began her grind just past the half-mile marker. Turning for home, the first-over Twenty Seven cruised past Happy Court but had to turn back the late bid from Delightful Diva (Cory Stratton), who had to settle for second-place honors. Happy Court took the third-place check.

Owned by Faire Oaks Farm of nearby Lancaster, New York, Twenty Seven (So Surreal-Terrorcam) is trained by Richard Tomaszewski. It was the first victory for Twenty Seven, who qualified at Buffalo Raceway on June 6 in 2:00 4/5. The victory was worth $10,000 in her maiden win.

Kevin Cummings and Drew Monti finished the afternoon with four victories each while Brett Beckwith collected two. Courtney Wright had a pair of training wins.

Racing will return on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. (EDT) with 13 races slated.

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

--press release (Buffalo)--