Maineiac Matt continued to display impressive form on Aug. 31 as the 3-year-old standout in the Maine Standardbred Breeders’ Stake program revisited the Scarborough Downs’ winner’s circle after spending the better part of the past two months scorching the ovals of Maine’s agricultural fair tracks.
Maineiac Matt, who races out of the Michael Graffam Stable barely broke a sweat during the Labor Day weekend performance. He set all his own fractions in Sunday’s $9,997 MSBS split while making every pole a winning one en route to an open-lengths victory timed in 1:57-3/5th.
The win was the 13th career victory for the Maine-bred son of Merrilywerollalong from only 16 lifetime starts and comes fresh off a Maine record-setting clocking of 1:55.1 just last weekend at the Windsor fairgrounds.
Maineiac Matt, owned by the partnership of William Arnold, Timothy Arnold and Richard Shaw, paid $2.10 across the board as the prohibitive bettors’ choice and will next appear in stakes competition on Sept. 14 at the Farmington Fair.
Pembroke Blitz and driver Heath Campbell provided an upset of sorts in the second $9,997 MSBS division on Sunday as the 5-2 second choice tracked all the good early speed of the heavily-favored Terry’s Star Dragon (driven by Michael Graffam) to overtake the front-runner during a stirring duel in an identical clocking to the first stakes flight – 1:57-3/5th.
These two Maine pacers have combined to form a robust rivalry during their first two years of raceway competition with Terry’s Star Dragon still enjoying the edge in head-to head racing, having tallied five wins to Pembroke Blitz’s two when the two rivals have lined up behind the same starting gate.
All three Maine-bred standardbred stars have their eyes set on the inaugural edition of Maine Sire Stakes Super Weekend on Oct. 11 and 12 when all eight MSBS division championships will be decided over a two-day period at Scarborough Downs with total purses for the weekend expected to exceed $500,000.
Scarborough Downs features live harness racing every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening at 4:15 p.m. The Sunday matinees feature a 1:30 p.m. post time.
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