EAST BOSTON — Suffolk Downs concluded the third live racing and food truck festival weekend of the summer Sunday with 12 races, two of which were $50,000 stakes races for horses bred in Massachusetts.
Saint Anna, owned by Dr. Anthony Zizza of Saugus, stretched her speed out to two turns for the first time and notched her second consecutive stakes victory in $50,000 John Kirby Stakes.
Trained by Dylan Clarke, the sophomore daughter of Kodiak Kowboy had Luis Perez aboard as she drew off to win by 3 1/4 lengths and she now has three wins from four starts.
The race was run as an exhibition race to start the program.
In the featured race, Jonathan Buckley-saddled Princess Dream to her turf debut in the $50,000 George F. Brown Memorial Turf Mile. A 5-year-old daughter of Freud bred and owned by Mrs. Patricia Moseley of Hamilton, Princess Dream broke alertly and contested the pace under jockey Joel Sone.
She took command at the top of the stretch and held off a late charge from Saint Alfred to prevail by a neck and complete one mile in 1:41.29 over a firm turf course.
Princess Dream is now undefeated from four starts this year and has won seven of her thirteen lifetime starts. She returned $4.80, 3.00 and 2.60. Saint Alfred paid $3.60 and 2.40 while Desert Dotty returned $3.20.
This weekend also marked the third $5,000 Jockey Challenge in which the riders accumulated points towards a cash bonus at the conclusion of the weekend. Jockey Erik Barbaran took home the top prize of $2,000 and led the standings with 43 points.
Dylan Davis finished second with 34 points for a prize of $1,500 while Pedro Monterrey, Jr. landed in the third spot with 33 points which was worth $1,000 and Dyn Panell rounded out the standings with 31 points for the $500 fourth prize.
Suffolk Downs has a request pending before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to add another weekend of live racing to its 2018 schedule, September 15-16. It is expected the MGC will take up the request at its August meeting.