Leaving from post 5 in a field of eight, Paquet hustled Aruba Vacation past the quarter in 27.4 before yielding to Macs Bad Boy (Sean Bier). Bier took the field by the half-mile mark of the race in 56.1 and continued to lead by three quarters in 1:25.
Around the final turn, Paquet angled Aruba Vacation off the rail to challenge the leader and he responded by trotting by Macs Bad Boy in the stretch for his second win of the year.
Aruba Vacation is a 5-year-old homebred son of Dream Vacation – Dixie Hit for Howard Stables of Binghamton, N.Y., and trainer Guy Howard. The win was the second in 10 seasonal starts for Aruba Vacation, who established a new lifetime mark with the mile, and increased his seasonal earnings to more than $32,000.
Hoboken Sonny (Jim Raymer) got up to finish second, while Macs Bad Boy (Sean Bier) hung tough for third.
The 1:53.3 track mark was originally established by Woody Woodrow (Mike Simons) in 2007, and was equaled once more earlier this year by Spice It Up Lindy (Jim Meittinis).
Sean Bier posted a driving double on the night’s nine-race card and increased his total to 1,997 on his quest to 2,000 career wins.
Tioga Downs continues live racing on Sunday, July 8, at 1:30 p.m. For more information on Tioga Downs please visit us on our website atwww.tiogadowns.com.
--Dustin Ross
VERNON DOWNS
Mach My Word and Stettin Hanover were winners in co-featured paces at Vernon Downs on Saturday night, July 7.
With Frank Davis catch-driving both first-place finishers, Mach My Word ($7.40) earned his second win in succession and third tally of 2012 with a 1:52 performance in Saturday’s $6,500 seventh event, while Stettin Hanover ($5.00) followed suit with a 1:53.2 effort in the $6,500 ninth event, that also hiked his current win count to three.
Mach My Word came overland from fifth at the half to finish first by 2-1/2 lengths for trainer Scott West, who owns the 4-year-old son of Mach Three along with Tracy Brainard.
It was the bay gelding’s sixth lifetime tally.
The veteran Stettin Hanover also rallied from off the pace and closed from fourth in the final quarter to win by a half-length over Western Wild King. Former Vernon training champion Lonny Hale conditions the bay son of Artiscape for the Hale Storm Stable.
Provisional driver Gary Minckler earned his first pari-mutuel victory after piloting the pacer Inconvenient Truth to a snappy 1:54.2 score in Saturday’s $3,300 10th event.
The 35-year-old teamster did the steering for trainer Tony Mondi and owner Lon Frocione as the 6-year-old son of Power Of Art secured his initial win of the season and 13th lifetime tally.