Saratoga Harness: Uncle Rob, Gio's Hope shine in New York Sire Stakes
Uncle Rob and Gio's Hope went home with top honors from two New York Sire Stakes contests for 2-year-old male trotters on Tuesday afternoon at Saratoga Casino Hotel.
Driven by Andy Miller in the first $77,300 split, Uncle Rob led through fractions of 28 2/5, 59 and 1:28 4/5 en route to a three length victory in 1:57 3/5. Book It Armitage (Yannick Gingras) was second from first-over and Lionel Station (Brett Beckwith) came in third from a pocket trip.
Miller also owns Uncle Rob, a Met's Hall gelding bred by Lee Sitto and trained by Julie Miller. Uncle Rob has three wins and a second from five outings, has banked $116,250 and paid $7.34 to win.
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Gio's Hope (Dexter Dunn) took the lead on the outside from first-over on the final bend and went on to take the other $75,900 division by a length and three-quarters in 1:58 1/5. Bailey J (Jason Bartlett), who cut the 29 1/5 quarter, 59 1/5 half and 1:29 1/5 three-quarters, wound up second and Weinberg (Beckwith) finished third.
Bred by Little E LLC., the victorious colt is trained by Marcus Melander and owned by Brixton Medical Inc. and Hatfield Stables. Gio's Hope has a summary of 2-0-1 from three appearances, has pocketed $72,000 and returned $4.28 to win.
A trio of $20,000 New York Excelsior Series races were won by:
--Betelgeusebluechip (by Crazy Wow and bred by Blue Chip Bloodstock Inc., paid $6.44 to win) in 1:59 3/5 for driver Tyler Buter, trainer Rob Harmon and owners Go For Glory Stable LLC., Robert Robinson, Billy Muggleston and Harmon Racing Stable LLC.;
--Telling Tall Tales (by Back Of The Neck and bred by Runthetable Stables, paid $3.36 to win) in 1:59 4/5 for driver Tyler Buter, trainer Rob Harmon and owners Harmon Racing Stable LLC., Billy Muggleston and Robert Robinson;
--Fools Game (by Met's Hall and bred by Noelle Duspiva, paid $6.72 to win) in 1:59 2/5 for driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Brian Mattison and owner Karen Mattison.