Plainville, MA — Driver Drew Monti captured the 1,500th win of his career on Thursday afternoon (Nov. 21) at Plainridge Park, when he guided the venerable trotter Hailstorm Volo to a gate-to-wire victory in the second race.

Drew Monti scored the 1,500th win of his driving career with Hailstorm Volo on Thursday at Planridge Park.

For his career, Monti now has 1,501 wins, 1,346 second-place finishes and 1,295 third-place finishes out of 9,320 starts, with a Universal Driver Rating (UDR) of .299. As a result of his work, the horses he has driven have earned a total of $9.2 million during his brief seven-year career.

This year, Monti has 256 wins, a UDR of .303 and earnings of $2,149,908. However, the bulk of those numbers came just during the last five months.

Starting in July, Monti divided his driving time between Batavia Downs, Plainridge Park and The Red Mile, and at one point was listed as one of the top four drivers for wins at all three tracks. He was the primary driver for Lindy Farms at Plainridge and became a sought-after catch driver there in the process. He also drove Lindy’s horses in the Massachusetts Sire Stakes, and most of their entries in the Kentucky Sire Stakes as well.

As a result of the multi-track schedule he maintained since getting his first win at Plainridge on July 10, Monti has won 170 races and bankrolled $1.5 million during that short span.

Although he did have more wins in 2017 (294), this year marks the first time in Monti’s career that he eclipsed the $2 million mark in earnings.

With the Plainridge meet down to four days and the Batavia meet down to nine, Monti plans to take up residency at The Meadowlands right after the holidays.

Driver Bruce Ranger was in top form, winning the feature as well as four other races on the nine-race card, which included a natural hat trick in races four through six.

Opus Blue Chip’s victory in the day’s top pacing event capped a five-win afternoon for driver Bruce Ranger. Tom Melanson photos.

In a $12,000 pace for upper-level condition horses, Ranger left with Opus Blue Chip from post eight, went right to the front and never looked back. After cutting quarters of :26.3, :56.2 and 1:24.1, Opus Blue Chip took a three-length lead into the stretch and made it last to the wire, defeating a fast-closing Betterlatethnnever (Mitchell Cushing) in 1:53.2.

For Opus Blue Chip ($14.20), it was the eighth win of the year and it pushed his earnings to $94,530 for owner Scott Dillon. Joe Nelson trains the winner.

Prior to that, Ranger won with Bet On Joe (1:55, $17.00), Chief Altawick (1:54, $4.20), Burkes Bandit (1:54.4, $5.80) and JJs Shark (1:54, $15.20).

The five wins pushed him to 200 for the year, which is the most driving tallies he has had since 2013. Ranger now has 9,159 wins and over $37 million in earnings during his distinguished career.

Ranger is a member of both the Florida and New England Halls of Fame.

Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Friday (Nov. 22) at 1 p.m.