Tioga: Breakthrough stakes win for New Zealand's Speeding Spur

New Zealand import Speeding Spur picked a fine time to score his first win in the United States, taking the $148,000 Crawford Farms Open Trot on Sunday afternoon at Tioga Downs in a track record clocking of 1:52 4/5.

Starting from the outside post six, driver Brian Sears pressed on to the front with Speeding Spur, and he was able to work around early leader Mission Accepted (Yannick Gingras) past the 27 4/5 opening quarter. Gingras would then re-move to the top with Mission Accepted, and he would go on to hit the half in 56 2/5 and the three-quarters in 1:24 2/5, with a first-up Fiftydallarbill (Corey Callahan) able to offer no pressure as he stalled in the third quarter.

Mission Accepted turned for home first, but Sears came to the outside with Speeding Spur coming off the final bend, and he would reach up just in time to win by a nose over Mission Accepted. Run Director (Sylvain Filion) gained off the dull cover of Fiftydallarbill to get third, with Pinkman (Dexter Dunn), Fiftydallarbill, and The Veteran (Scott Zeron) rounding out the order.

The time of 1:52 4/5 lowered the previous track record for an older trotting horse of 1:53 2/5 that had belonged to Wings Of Royalty since 2017.

"He's a classy horse. He's made close to a million dollars overseas, so he knows what it's all about," offered Sears. "He's only raced a couple times so far since he's been over here. I just tried to put him in the race a little bit with the short field, and it worked out."

Linda Toscano trains Speeding Spur, an 8-year-old stallion by Pegasus Spur, for owner/breeder Woodlands Stud NZ Inc. This was his 28th career victory, and he has now earned $882,302. A multiple-time Group 1 winner in both Australia and New Zealand, Speeding Spur had finished fourth and sixth in his first two attempts here, both of which came at the Meadowlands. He was sent off at 8-1 today and paid $18.60 to win.