It was a big Sunday for New York-sired horses at Tioga Downs, as 3-year-old pacers of both sexes had rich Empire Breeders Classic finals and 2-year-old pacing males met in one $112,100 sire stakes contest.
In the $200,650 Empire Breeders Classic for fillies, Shes A Streaker (Tyler Buter) cut fractions of 26 2/5, 55 4/5 and 1:22 4/5 but was overtaken on the last turn by a pocket-pulling The Last Martini (Jason Bartlett). 1-2 favorite Unreasonable (Marcus Miller) followed The Last Martini's bid, and even though she lost cover when The Last Martini went back to the pylons late on the bend, Unreasonable was able to get by in the lane to prevail by a quarter of a length in 1:50 2/5. Shes A Streaker held third, nine lengths behind the top two.
"She's been super-sharp. She got caught late on the lead (last time) but through no fault of her own. She paced really hard to the wire," Miller said about Unreasonable, who has been racing in the Kentucky Championship Series at The Red Mile. "I just was pretty sure I had to keep her out of trouble today, not be too far back and she could probably get it done.
"She'll go back to Kentucky, she's got the final there, so hopefully she can just keep it going."
Erv Miller trains Unreasonable, a daughter of Huntsville bred by Steve Stewart and Frank Chick, and co-owns her with David J. Miller. She has nine wins, three seconds and three thirds from 19 career starts, has earned $423,892 and paid $3.00 to win.
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Dandy Ideal (Bartlett), coming off a win in the Max C. Hempt Memorial at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania last time out, put up a 27 1/5 quarter, 56 second half, 1:23 3/5 three-quarters in the $190,650 Empire Breeders Classic for colts and geldings and then came home in 26 2/5 to defeat pocket-sitter and fellow Hunter Oakes trainee Thirsty Thursday (Buter) by a length in 1:50. Courts On Fire (Mark MacDonald) came in third.
"I tried to go as easy as possible and do enough just to win the race and that's what I did," Bartlett remarked.
This was Dandy Ideal's six straight victory and had Bartlett hoping the connections would pay the supplemental fee to enter him in the Little Brown Jug next month.
"The horse is really good," Bartlett added. "He's got the New York Sire Stakes final I think in a couple of weeks, so our next stop is there, and then hopefully on to bigger things for him."
Oakes trains Dandy Ideal, an American Ideal gelding, for owners Susan Oakes, Thaddeus Wier and Alan Johnston. The Dr. Stephen Dey III and Dandy Farms-bred has a summary of 11-4-2 from 21 outings, has put away $604,880 and returned $2.10 to win as the 1-9 choice.
Bartlett also won the New York Sire Stakes event with Fragment in 1:52. Away fifth, he tipped out past the 56 second half-mile marker and flushed out pocket-sitter Hunt Off The Press (Buter) before the 1:23 2/5 three-quarters. Bartlett swung Fragment out off the cover on the last turn, he went by both leader Knoxville (MacDonald) and Hunt Off The Press and pulled away to score by 3 1/4 lengths over Hard To Forget (Matt Kakaley). Knoxville held third.
Fragment is a Huntsville colt trained by Per Engblom for owners Engblom Stable LLC. and Douglas Sipple. Bred by Steve Stewart, Black Creek Farm, Michael Robinson and South Mountain Stables, Fragment has now won five times and posted one runner-up finish from seven trips behind the gate, has banked $292,776 and paid $4.30 to win.