Morrill was magnificent scoring seven wins at Batavia Downs

Batavia, NY — Jim Morrill Jr. put on a driving clinic at Batavia Downs on Friday (Sept. 19) night as he schooled his competition to the tune of seven winners and thrust himself into the dash driving lead for the current summer/fall Downs meeting. 

The pride of Methuen, Massachusetts, Morrill won with Mucho Macho (1:58.1, $2.92), Technical Wow (1:57.4, $3.48), Platinum Proposal (1:59, $2.30), Ponda spark (1:56, $5.80), Lookatmyart (1:55.3, $3.32), Ms titan (1:57.4, $3.16) and Mcnatural L (1:57.3, $4.32). 

Morrill also posted a second from his 11 total drives, giving himself a gaudy .687 UDR for the evening. Morrill has always been a high percentage reinsman and is currently batting a .433 for the entire year and that places him third among all drivers in North America with less than 500 starts. 

Morrill started the card with 43 wins, which was five behind Drew Monti (48), but he now stands at 50 wins, one ahead of Monti, who did win one race on the card to bring himself up to 49.

The featured races on Friday were a pair of $11,100 mid-level conditioned trots. In the first, Newsboy made headlines as he stifled his foes off a class drop.

Newsboy (Drew Monti) traded leads with Latavius (Jim Morrill Jr.) before finally settling on the point at the :29.4 quarter. Monti then throttled the pace with pedestrian 1:00.1 half time, but had no one from the pack pushing the issue. Latavius continued to track Newsboy from the pocket as he made his way up the backstretch and around the last turn. At the top of the stretch Latavius popped the deuce in chase, but Newsboy had fled the scene and scored a victory by a length in 1:58.3. 

Newsboy ($2.68) is owned by Carl Monti and Jim Caradori and trained by Darrin Monti. 

In the second split, Spicy Hops got the jump, led at every station and won the race handily. 

John Cummings Jr. settled in third with Spicy Hops until Starlitcrescentroll (Dave McNeight III) and Famous Dan (Jim Morrill Jr.) argued for the lead off the gate. When that dust-up was settled, Spicy Hops pulled and bolted to the front before the :28.2 quarter and dominated from there. Trotting unabated, Spicy Hops went to the half in :59.2 and three-quarters in 1:29 while Northernchancellor (Drew Monti) made a third-panel bid and Starlitcrescentroll continued to pursue from the pocket. However all efforts to catch the leader were futile as Spicy Hops turned for home, clearly the best, and won by a length in 1:58.1. 

Spicy Hops ($5.14) is owned by Gary Ballowe and Cassie Russo, who also trains the winner. 

Live racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Saturday (Sept. 20) with post time at 6:00 p.m. and a carryover on $1,412 in the Jackpot Super Hi-5 pentafecta in the 12th race. 

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. Then you can watch all the races live as they happen for free on the Batavia Downs YouTube page.

By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs Gaming