Saratoga Harness: Blazing Home N fires in Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace

Blazing Home N took over the lead past the quarter and kept it from there to win the 17th annual Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial Pace on Saturday night at Saratoga Casino Hotel. After being a Grand Circuit race that lured some of the top horses in the division to Saratoga for many years, the format of the Gerrity was changed in 2026 to a series for the top local open horses, and the final went for a purse of $100,000.

Driven by trainer/owner Larry Stalbaum, Blazing Home N showed speed from post six and cleared entrymate Mr Mclaren N (Matthew Athearn) for the top spot beyond the 26 4/5 quarter. Mr Mclaren N began to gap before the 55 3/5, which allowed a first-over Ahi Sunshine (Jim Devaux) to drop into the two-hole, and that left 3-5 favorite Binge On Yankee (Kyle Swift), the defending champion of the race, in the first-over position.

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Three-quarters went on the board in 1:22 2/5 with Blazing Home N still in front and clear, and although Binge On Yankee cut into the margin, especially in the stretch, the gap that Blazing Home N built up was enough to get him to the wire a neck to the good in 1:51 4/5. Binge On Yankee had to settle for second, followed by Full Metal Jacket (Wally Hennessey), who rallied from eighth to third in the back-half of the mile. Belmont Royale N (Jay Randall) and Ahi Sunshine rounded out the top five.

A 7-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven gelding, Blazing Home N has a summary of 29-20-9 from 93 starts, has earned $473,857 and paid $9.32 to win.