Plainridge: Alrajah One awesome again in Spirit Of Massachusetts Trot

Coming off a dazzling victory in the Crawford Farms Trot at the Meadowlands in his U.S. debut, Italian-bred Alrajah One followed that up with a track record 1:50 3/5 tally in the $250,000 Spirit of Massachusetts for free-for-allers on Monday afternoon at Plainridge Park.

Starting from the outside post nine, Alrajah One floated away from the gate for Dexter Dunn and dropped into the sixth position. Meanwhile, It's Academic (Yannick Gingras) went to the top and chopped out the opening quarter in 26 1/5 before being overtaken by a brushing-from-third Forbidden Trade (Mark MacDonald).

Forbidden Trade would go on to click off the half-mile in 54 2/5, but Lovedbythemasses (Tim Tetrick) began to roll first-over out of fourth approaching that point, giving cover to Alrajah One. Lovedbythemasses surged by Forbidden Trade to become the new boss on the way to the 1:22 2/5 three-quarters, and although he lost cover, Alrajah One didn't lose interest, moving up into second and putting pressure on Lovedbythemasses on the final bend.

Alrajah One would overtake Lovedbythemasses for good in the upper part of the lane, and from there, he kicked on to win by a length and three-quarters. It's Academic, who escaped off the pylons to get around the stopping Forbidden Trade prior to three-quarters, closed with trot to finish second, and Lovedbythemasses had to settle for third. There was a dead-heat for fourth between 67-1 shot P L Notsonice (Todd McCarthy) and Incommunicado (Ake Svanstedt). P L Notsonice followed Alrajah One's cover loosely from third-over, and Incommunicado unfortunately got trapped and shuffled on the inside behind Forbidden Trade as he backed away.

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"We got a pretty live tow until halfway down the back, and after that he was doing it pretty easy. He does all the hard work and he makes my job easy," said Dunn.

A 6-year-old stallion by Maharajah, Alrajah One is trained by Svanstedt and owned by Scuderia My Horse Inc. Alrajah One is a 15-time winner from 42 career starts, he has now put away $1,376,807, and he paid $3.80 to win as the 4-5 favorite.

"He's a pretty easy horse to manage," said Sarah Svanstedt, who added that Alrajah One has the Cashman Memorial, the Allerage Farms at The Red Mile and the Breeeders Crown at Woodbine Mohawk Park as targets for the rest of the year.