July 3, 2025 by Tim Bojarski, for the Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts
Plainville, MA — The track record for older pacing geldings at Plainridge Park was rewritten on Thursday (July 3) afternoon when Vintage Cheddar N stopped the clock in 1:49 in the day’s $25,000 featured pace and registered the fastest pacing mile of the meet to this point.
Vintage Cheddar N and driver Mitchell Cushing got away right behind the front-pacing Life’s A Puzzle (Nick Graffam), who was pushed through fast early fractions of :26.3 and :53.3 by the parked-out Grey Horizons (Drew Monti). Positions remained unchanged moving up the backstretch until Grey Horizons started to fade, prompting the back of the pack began to swing two- and three-wide around him and into contention.
Life’s A Puzzle continued to pace well around the last turn, but so did Vintage Cheddar N, who was about to make his move heading into the stretch. Vintage Cheddar N tipped and advanced incrementally closer to Life’s A Puzzle as the pair made their way down the lane. The battle continued all the way to the line, where Vintage Cheddar N got up by a nose to win in 1:49, which set the track record and also a new lifetime mark for the 10-year-old gelded victor.
Vintage Cheddar N lifted to a track-record performance in Thursday’s pacing feature at Plainridge Park. Tom Melanson photo.
It was the 25th lifetime win for Vintage Cheddar N ($6.20), who is owned by his trainer, Amanda Kelley, in partnership with VIP Internet Stable.
The $19,000 upper-level conditioned pace was won by Ahi Sunshine (Aaron Byron), who got away third before pulling first-over at the half to pace alongside leader Instant Replay (Kevin Switzer Jr.) in a quick :27.1 third quarter. By the top of the stretch, Ahi Sunshine had taken the lead and then held off all comers in the stretch to win by a nose in a seasonal best 1:51.2 in a five-horse photo that revealed all within a half length of each other.
Ahi Sunshine ($11.00) is owned by Janie Kellogg and trained by Jackie Greene.
Scoring two wins apiece, Cushing and Greene led their respective categories for the day.
Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday (July 7) at 4 p.m.; there will be a $1,749 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race six.
Free full past performance programs and race replays for all live racing days at Plainridge Park can be found at plainridgeparkcasino.com.