The best 2-year-old pacing colts and geldings bred in the Empire State, who also just happen to rank among the best in North America, will be on hand at Batavia Downs on Thursday (Aug.7) when the New York Sire Stakes reconvene with two five-horse fields competing for a total of $105,000 in purses.
In the first $52,500 division, Fragment (Huntsville-The Show Returns) has been the star of his group and his performances have placed him among the best anywhere. He has won three of four NYSS starts this year with his only loss coming last week, where he finished second to Hunt Off The Press in a record mile at Monticello. He currently ranks second in earnings among all 2-year-old pacers in North America with $131,175. Those earnings also place him first in this NYSS age and gait group, where he also ranks first for points earned (175).
Fragment has been made the prohibitive early favorite in this race and Jason Bartlett will drive from post four for trainer Per Engblom.
The main competition for Fragment should come from Lakewood Nick (Huntsville-Lindy’s Nightmare), who has been second and third twice each in his four NYSS outings, but is still looking for his first lifetime win. Jim Morrill Jr. will steer for trainer Ron Burke from post three.
In the second $52,500 split, Hunt Off The Press (Huntsville-Off The Press) has quite a resume with a number of accomplishments to list.
With two wins and two seconds from his four NYSS starts to date, Hunt Off The Press has earned $122,100, which places him as the fourth-richest 2-year-old pacer in North America. He also sits second for earnings and points (150) in the State Series, right behind Fragment. And Hunt Off The Press is coming into this race off a lifetime best 1:53 1/5 clocking at Monticello, which also demolished the track record there by 1-1/5th seconds. And all that while defeating Fragment.
Hunt Off The Press will start from post one with Tyler Buter in the bike for trainer Jared Bako.
Hunt Off The Press will get tough competition from Quickaway (American Ideal-Logan’s Girl), who won two straight NYSS events before making an unfortunate break from post eight at Monticello last week. Quickaway is the third-best pacer in this NYSS group with 108 points and $85,568 earned and is a definite player in this race.
Trained by Blake Macintosh, Quickaway drew post four and will be driven by Jason Bartlett.
Another interesting horse in this race is Knoxville (Huntsville-Let’s Fall In Love), who has been having trouble staying flat over half-mile tracks. After making back-to-back breaks at Buffalo and Saratoga, trainer Ray Schnittker sent the colt to qualify only four days later at Pocono where he ran off the screen by 17-1/2 lengths in a lifetime-best clocking of 1:52 1/5. If he can translate that effort to Batavia’s favorable half, he could definitely shake things up here.
Mark Macdonald will drive Knoxville from post three.
The NYSS are carded as race six and 11. There are also two $20,000 Excelsior Series events that will go as race eight and 10. Post time for the first race on Thursday is 6 p.m.
These horses along with many others will return to Batavia Downs on Saturday (Sept. 6) when the New York Sire Stakes Night of Champions will return to Genesee County for the first time since 2019.
Free full card past performance programs for every live card of racing at Batavia can always be downloaded at The Downs’ website (bataviadownsgaming.com) under the “Live Racing” tab and all the racing action can be viewed as it happens for free at the Batavia Downs Live Stream on YouTube.
-edited release (Tim Bojarski for Batavia Downs)