| March 17, 2018 | | Print View |
Defending champion from last year’s George Morton Levy Series at Yonkers Raceway, Keystone Velocity, begins the defense of his crown on Saturday night (March 17).
He will start from post seven in the second Levy division and will face Australian star Waikiki Beach in the fifth race on the card.
Now 10-years-old, the son of Western Hanover posted two qualifiers in preparation for his comeback, finishing second in a trial at Yonkers February 23 before winning a Pocono Downs qualifier by nine lengths in 1:52.1 March 6.
Two weeks ago, VIP Internet Stable’s Ed O’Connor, Tom Janes, and the partners in star pacer Keystone Velocity found themselves in a position they could have only dreamed a few short months earlier: accepting the Dan Patch Award for Older Pacing Male. For O’Connor, this underscored the record season VIP Stable had in 2017 and served as a reminder of why he created the racing syndicate back in 1999.
“That’s the kind of thing that I don’t know Tom and I ever expected to be in consideration for,” O’Connor said. “The fact that we won was really cool. It’s clearly a small percentage, but how many of the folks who are involved with us would have a chance to race a horse of that caliber?”
Owned in partnership with Allard Racing, Kapildeo Singh, and Earl Hill Jr., Keystone Velocity not only won the Levy Series Final but also captured the Ben Franklin Memorial at Pocono Downs and before ending his 2017 season with a win in the Potomac Pace at Rosecroft Raceway to finish the year with $783,422 in earnings, boosting VIP Stable’s earnings to $3,009,443 with 137 wins from 739 starts.
For more information on becoming a racehorse owner through VIP Internet Stable, visit vipstable.com.–By Brandon Valvo for VIP Internet Stable