There were three divisions of the first leg of the Jim Derue Memorial Trotting Series at Saratoga Casino and Raceway on Friday night.
Young trotters competed for their share of the $7,500 per division purses and Golden Stroke was the evening's big star.
The Eve Bergeron-trained trotter has been on a tear since adding trotting hopples last month and won for the third consecutive time on Friday night, setting a lifetime mark of 1:57.3.
Driver Stephane Bouchard situated Golden Stroke (Yankee Glide) into the pocket and they surged up the passing lane to record the win in the final strides.
The win time was the fastest of three divisions of the series' first leg whose other winners were Jackie Goldstein (Kim Crawford), who set a lifetime mark prevailing in 1:58.2, and The Lindy Treaty (Mark Beckwith), who also set a career best stopping the timer in 1:58.
The second leg of the Derue Trot will take place next Friday night with the $30,400 final taking place on Saturday October 18th.
Live racing continues on Saturday night at Saratoga with a first post time set for 6:45pm.
by Mike Sardella, for Saratoga Raceway
