Pompano Beach, FL — The annual Pro-Am event between teams led by Hall of Fame drivers Tim Tetrick and David Miller, sponsored by the Florida Amateur Driving Club, took place Monday (Feb. 14) at Pompano Park, with the Tetrick team winning the hotly-contested point-based competition in a photo finish — 65-64.

Tim Tetrick’s winning drive aboard Little Big Rigs sealed a 65-64 victory in Monday’s Pro-Am charity event at Pompano Park. Jessica Hallett photo.

The three-race event, benefiting Tetrick’s charity, New Vocations, and Miller’s charity, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, was decided in the final strides of the final race when Tetrick himself rallied Little Big Rigs to victory to set up the come-from-behind win.

In the first of the trio of Pro-Am events, Team Tetrick’s Steve Oldford got the jump when he guided his own trotting gelding A Royal Line ($14.60), trained by Maurice Goldschmidt Jr., to a photo-finish win in 1:59.1, beating Keystone Blade (Joe Pennacchio for Team Miller) by a neck with Shoshie Deo (Kevin Banting for Team Tetrick) just another nose back in third. After round one, Team Miller had a 27-24 lead, having occupied the next four spots in the order of finish in the initial race.

In round two, Miller rallied with the Jen Sansone-trained and Celebrity Farms-owned, Encore Encore trotter Don’t Sass Me ($8.80), who won by a length over Swan Before All (Ron Cusimano for Team Miller). Celebrity Serena (Tim Tetrick) finished third. Tim’s team provided more point power with fourth- and fifth-place finishes to close the gap, but Team Miller extended their lead to 55-47 through two rounds.

Going into the final round, Tetrick’s team faced the challenge of having to finish one-two to have any chance to win the hotly contested battle, with the outcome having to be determined with the complete official order of finish.

Tetrick took things into his own golden gloves giving the Chet Poole Jr.-trained, Johanna Calvert-owned Little Bigs to a 1:58.4 score over Mr Houdini (Jamie Marra for Team Tetrick) second. Miller finished third with Chav Hanover.

While the final tally was 65-64 in favor of Tetrick, New Vocations and Make-A-Wish finished in a “dead heat” of their own with each receiving $5,000 for their very worthy causes.

United States Trotting Association executive vice president Mike Tanner, who was in attendance for this event, added to the festivities and added $500 to each of the donations.

Representatives for both New Vocations and Make-A-Wish graced the winner’s circle, with New Vocations Winnie Nemeth saying, “This event is such a blessing for us and helps relocate so many horses when their racing days are over. We appreciate the amateur drivers so much and thank Mr. Tetrick for his help and generosity and caring for our efforts to protect our wonderful equine athletes.”

In response, Tetrick said, “These horses give us everything they’ve got on the racetrack, and it does my heart good to know that organizations like New Vocations are around to look out for their wellbeing after their racing days are over!”

As for Make-A-Wish, representative Kevin Fantin related, “Mr. Miller just made another youngster’s wish come true. We make a wish come true for youngsters every 14 hours, and it’s so great that people like him step up and care enough about the children less fortunate to make another wish fulfilled.”

After the event, Tetrick and Miller stayed in the winner’s circle to autograph hats in celebration of this event.

The Florida Amateur Driving Club (FADC) has now donated over $230,000 to worthwhile causes since their inception, made possible by the generosity of the entire membership donating all of their driving commissions in FADC to their statement cause.

More FADC events are scheduled in the near future, including an event luring horsemen and women from overseas and an event between some of the greatest veteran drivers and the “future stars” of the sport.