East Boston— The 2018 live racing season at Suffolk Downs concluded after eight days of live racing spread over the course of four weekends from June through September. The boutique meet, held in conjunction with food truck festivals each weekend, featured over $4 million in purses and awards including stakes races for Massachusetts-bred horses.
Trainer Jay Bernardini, a resident of Lynn, topped the trainer standings with 10 victories and starters earning a total of $342,850 over the course of eight racing days. He saddled 52 horses and completed the season with a 52% in the money percentage. Local horseman Dylan Clarke finished second in the standings with 6 wins and $280,000 in earnings. Bernardini claimed the leading trainer title in 2014, the last time Suffolk Downs ran a full season.
Jockey Erik Barbaran, a familiar face in recent years in New England racing, topped the jockey standings with $325,050 in earnings and nine victories. Seven of his nine victories came aboard Bernardini-trained runners. Barbaran also claimed the top spot in the August edition of the $5,000 Jockey Challenge, an inaugural incentive for 2018 in which the riders compete for points over the course of each weekend.
Massachusetts-bred horses dominated the standings with Grady and Princess Dream getting the distinction of being the most winning horses of the meet. Grady, trained by Dylan Clarke, is an eight-year-old gelding who won three of his four local starts for earnings of $77,000. Princess Dream, a five-year-old daughter of Freud bred and owned by Mrs. Patricia Moseley of Hamilton, went undefeated from three starts against stakes competition for trainer Jonathan Buckley and won on both turf and dirt.
The track remains open year-round for simulcasting and intends to request live racing dates for 2019 from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
For more information, visit www.suffolkdowns.com
About Suffolk Downs:
Built by 3,000 workers in just 62 days when Massachusetts authorized pari-mutuel wagering in 1935, the historic track has been a showcase for some of the most famous names in Thoroughbred racing history, including Seabiscuit, Whirlaway, John Henry, Cigar and Skip Away.
