by John Berry, for Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — Four Socks, catch-driven by Wally Hennessey, took top honors in Pompano Park’s featured Open Pace on Sunday night (May 6), stopping the timer in 1:52.4.

The rugged gelded son of I Scoot Hanover showed his four socks to a classy field in scoring a wire-to-wire win off panels of :27, :56.4 and 1:24.2 before an effortless :28.2 finale left him 1-1/4 lengths up on Caviart Reagan, handled by Dave Ingraham. Favored Dee’s Rocketman finished third for Mickey McNichol while Team Captain and Spirit Shadow completed the roster of the quintet.

Skip Smith photo

Four Socks, driven by Wally Hennessey, took top honors in Pompano Park’s Sunday feature.

With post positions assigned, Hennessey, leaving from post position four, sent Four Socks whistling off the wings and into the lead and after a swift opener was able to get that second quarter breather that “really helped the cause.”

On the backside, things began to heat up rapidly with Dee’s Rocketman surging and just a length off the leader around the final bend. But once they straightened away, Four Socks had plenty left and was never threatened to the wire.

After the race, Hennessey remarked, “Murph’s horse (Four Socks) was sharp as a tack coming in. I knew that because I had been racing against him in recent weeks and he was full of pace late against Panocchio in his last start. So, when you know your competition and get an opportunity to drive a horse like this, it’s a blessing. We got to the lead very easy and he was nice and relaxed during the second quarter which really helped the cause.

“I’ll tell you who gets the credit here — Mike’s wife (Barbara) and Joan Uszak, who has been in this business just about forever, do just a fantastic job taking care of this horse. He is immaculate. They get all the credit because he was ready to race tonight.”

Trained by Mike Murphy for owners Barbara Murphy and Geneva Stewart, Four Socks won for the third time this year in 13 starts, good for $18,958 and $181,884 lifetime. Four Socks paid $4.20 to his multitude of faithful and kicked off a Pick-6 sequence that paid a generous $212.05 for the 50-cent ticket, despite the fact that following Four Socks, four favorites won and the longest shot in the Pick-6 was 3-1.

Racing resumes Wednesday night with post time set at 7:20 p.m.