Harrah's Hoosier Park: Play Trix On Me captures Carl Erskine Memorial

After coming up just a nose short of beating Amigo Volo in the Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Trot final, Play Trix On Me didn't suffer another disappointment on Friday night at Harrah's Hoosier Park as he scored in the $140,000 Carl Erskine Memorial. The final time was a career-best 1:53.

Driven by Joe Bongiorno, Play Trix On Me fired out fast from post six and was leading at the 26 4/5 opening quarter, but a two-wide Ready For Moni (Yannick Gingras) pressed on and cleared past that point. Ready For Moni continued to show the way to the half in 56 seconds and the three-quarters in 1:25 1/5, with It's Academic (Chris Page) moving first-over out of third on the far turn and Chestnut Hill (David Miller) poised second-over.

In the lane Ready For Moni continued to cling to an advantage over It's Academic, but Bongiorno appeared loaded with Play Trix On Me and was just waiting for the passing lane. When that avenue became available, Play Trix On Me shot through, overhauled both Ready For Moni and It's Academic, and went on to win by a length and a quarter. It's Academic wore down Ready For Moni to finish second, with Sermon (Kasper Forget) fourth and McMatters (Sam Widger) back in fifth.

"A lot of races don't tear me up, but I was torn up for two days after that race," Bongiorno said about the narrow defeat in the Breeders Crown. "I was coming back jogging next to Dexter (Dunn, who drove Amigo Volo), and Dexter actually thought I might have got him. We came over here and we saw the toteboard, and I was like 'wow, that sucks, but congrats, man.' He raced so good last week. I was really confident with him tonight. He has such good gate speed. He can put himself in the race anywhere, and he's such a useful horse.

"Last week, if I end up in the two-hole and Ake (Svanstedt) ends up taking behind me instead of getting in front of me, I think I jog, but tonight I wasn't getting away any worse than the two-hole. I was hoping to be on the front, but I was fine where I was at."

Linda Toscano trains Play Trix On Me, a Trixton colt, for owner Renee Spahr. This was his ninth career win, and he has now earned $555,943. Sent off at 3-1, he paid $8.40 to win.

"I just got really lucky to pick the drive up. I looked back at his lines, and I'm like 'wow, this horse has been good all year, he just hasn't gotten lucky and really won one of these big races,'" Bongiorno added. "He's been right on the wire a bunch of times, and I love the horse. He drives really nice, and he's so handy. He can get off the car so good."