Dover: Primo Maschio cruises in Thursday's DSBF final

After being narrowly upended in both preliminary rounds, Forrest Bartlett's Primo Maschio proved much too strong for his seven rivals in the $110,000 Delaware Standardbred Breeders' Fund (DSBF) championship for 2-year-old male pacers, throwing down a career-best 1:53 4/5 mile on Thursday (Nov. 21) at Bally's Dover.

In line to Trae Porter, Primo Maschio asserted himself from the pole position at race's outset and forced Shore Not Beach (driven by Pat Berry) into the pocket through a 27 3/5 first quarter. Once in control, Primo Maschio continued unopposed through a 56 1/5 half before accelerating up the backstretch to extend his lead to 2 1/2 lengths past three-quarters in 1:24. That burst of speed from Primo Maschio was enough to do away with his competition, as the Badlands Hanover-Primadonna gelding soundly defeated Shore Not Beach by four lengths. Won Last Call (Montrell Teague) gave futile chase to the top pair throughout and finished third, 15 3/4 lengths in arrears.

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Walter Callahan trains Primo Maschio, who was bred by Let It Ride Stables and Bottom Line Racing and has won nine of 11 career starts and banked $174,170. He paid $4.00 to win as the even-money favorite.

The $110,000 DSBF championship for 2-year-old fillies, named in memory of longtime Delaware harness racing publicist Marv Bachrad, will go as the fourth of 15 races on the Monday (Nov. 25) program at Bally's Dover. First post is 4:30 p.m. (EDT).

--press release (DSBF)--