Freehold, NJ — Freehold Raceway played host to the AHDC Amateur Driving event on Saturday (Feb. 15).

Eight trotters went to post in the fifth race on the card and after some “jockeying” for the top spot to the quarter pole, things settled down for a short interlude.  Charlie Ona Harley (Bob Davis), got to the top just after the quarter-mile stanza in 28.3 and was able to slow the pace down from there, which proved to be the key to his nose victory. 

He floated out of there from the seven-hole and was unable to collar Noble Warrawee (Mike Polansky), until just after the quarter pole, who was also challenged by Southwind Dorian (Dawn Anderson).  As the field settled into the second turn and towards the half, Anderson pulled off the rail from third and tried to get to the top but was unsuccessful in doing so. 

That clogged up the outer tier and forced the closers to come three-wide before the three-quarter marker.  That is when Wygant Prince(Paul Minore) and Tropical Storm Bi(Tony Ciuffetelli came calling but were unable to overcome the obstacles, thus leading to Davis’s victory. 

Ciuffetelli was able to get second, just a nose from victory and Polansky scooted up the cones for the show dough.  The mile went in 1:59.4.  Anyone who put a $2 win investment on the nose of “Charlie” to win was rewarded with a generous $33.80 return. 

This was somewhat surprising since this event was handicapped and Davis’s horse figured to be in the mix, even from post seven.  The 5- year old gelding is out of Glidemaster, is owned by Bill Reepmeyer LLC out of New Hampshire and trained by Lisa Zabielski.                                                           

The next race in the AHDC amateur event will take place next Saturday at Freehold with the first post scheduled for 12:30 p.m.