Scioto: Cuatro De Julio scores in Charlie Hill Memorial Trot

Cuatro De Julio picked up his second straight victory in a six-figure event by winning Saturday evening's $200,000 Charlie Hill Memorial Trot for free-for-allers at Scioto in a track record 1:51 1/5.

It's Academic (Chris Page) led to the 26 3/5 opening quarter, but driver Yannick Gingras brought Cuatro De Julio to the outside in the second quarter and took over the lead nearing the 55 2/5 half. When Cuatro De Julio cleared, that left Lovedbythemasses (Andy McCarthy) first-over and challenging.

Lovedbythemasses put in a game effort on the rim and pressued Cuatro De Julio to the 1:23 three-quarters, but Cuatro De Julio put him away on the last turn and went on to score by a pair of lengths. Lovedbythemasses held second from Kings County (Brett Miller), with Logan Park (Tyler Smith) and Hillexotic (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) back in fourth and fifth.

The clocking of 1:51 1/5 lowered the previous Scioto standard for a 4-year-old trotting horse of 1:52 2/5 that belonged to Il Sogno Dream.

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"In the post parade he just acts up a little bit. He's got a mind of his own, but once the gate opened up and I put him behind the gate, then he's all business," Gingras said in an interview with the USTA. "All the stuff he does in the post parade, he does the opposite in the race. He's a true professional."

Marie Ortolan-Bar trains and co-owns Cuatro De Julio, a son of Trixton, with D Farm LLC. This was his 15th lifetime victory, and he has now earned $849,541. He was the 3-5 favorite and returned $3.20 to win.