Dover: Track record effort by Gimpanzee in Matron victory

Gimpanzee powered to a 1:51 1/5 track record peformance in the $208,300 Matron for sophomore colt and gelding trotters on Thursday evening at Dover Downs.

Driven by Brian Sears, Gimpanzee showed speed from post five, but he let Chin Chin Hall (Dexter Dunn) go to the point passing the 27 second opening quarter, and then Gimpanzee's pocket position became a three-hole as they raced through the stretch the first time as a parked Don't Let'em (Yannick Gingras) pressed on to the front.

Don't Let'em had to pay the price of a 54 4/5 half to assume command, and then Sears and Gimpanzee attacked again on the outside in the third quarter, getting to within a length of Don't Let'em at the 1:23 three-quarters. Gimpanzee trotted by Don't Let'em on the final bend, then powered away from there, winning by four lengths. Chin Chin Hall emerged in the passing lane for second over Pilot Discretion (Andrew McCarthy), who finished well off cover. Marseille (Ake Svanstedt) was left first-up on the final turn when Gimpanzee cleared and ended up fourth, with Don't Let'em fading to fifth.

The time of 1:51 1/5 lowered the previous standard for the division of 1:52 that had belonged to Crazy Wow.

"I was just kind of playing it by ear, seeing where Yannick got away," remarked Sears. "He kept coming and put me in the three-hole, which was not the worst place for my horse. I was pretty happy with that. He raced super. The horse has been a little professional ever since Day One, and I can't say enough about him."

A Chapter Seven colt, Gimpanzee is owned by Courant Inc. and S R F Stable. Gimpanzee now has a career record of 17-1-2 from 22 efforts, and he has pocketed $1,692,671. The 2-5 favorite, he paid $2.80 to win.

"It was a good bunch of horses out there, and first-up on a horse like Don't Let'em that won in a track record last time at Hoosier, you never know, but my horse is very honest and very strong," said Melander. "I think he's, right now, the best one in this division. He's been great all year, really. He qualified in late April and then has been going on and raced all year. It's amazing that he's still in this kind of form.

As the Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt and Gelding Trot champion, Gimpanzee has an invitation to race in next week's TVG Open Trot at the Meadowlands, but Melander was non-committal about starting in that race at this point.

"He's invited to race in the TVG against aged horses next, but we'll see," he stated. "We'll go home now, and we'll see how he came out of this race."