by John Manzi, publicity director, Monticello Raceway

Monticello, NY — It’ll be number one against number three when North America’s leading dash winner, Ronnie Wrenn, Jr., locks horns with Bruce Aldrich, Jr., third in wins on the continent, on Thursday (Dec. 12) at Monticello Raceway.

USTA/Ed Keys photo

Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. leads all North American drivers with 631 wins in 2013.

The 26-year-old Wrenn, from a top racing family in Michigan, has blossomed into a world class driver and his 631 driving victories leads all North America reinsmen.

Aldrich, 43, in his first year of just driving, has already booked 566 winners and is enjoying the best season of his career.

Career wise, Aldrich has driven 4,671 winners while the youthful Wrenn has already passed the 1.000-win plateau and has 1,242 wins in just four full seasons in the sulky.

Aldrich will have hometown advantage as Wrenn will be coming in from Northfield, Ohio. Both are leading drivers at their respective tracks, Aldrich at Monticello Raceway and Wrenn at Northfield Park.

“This has the makings of an interesting competition, not only for the drivers, but for the betting public,” Aldrich said. “There’s no doubt that good drivers will be in competition but there are factors that may be beyond our control, especially in the eight horse fields. And I can tell you, Monticello has a good driving colony and we will not only be challenged by them but we’ll have to keep an eye on one another.”

Geri Schwarz photo

Bruce Aldrich, Jr. is third in North America with 566 winners this year.

Last week, when Wrenn was asked if he’d drive the card against Aldrich, he said, “Yes, but I’d like to know how the drives are selected.”

“We have a tentative plan on how to make the competition as fair as possible,” offered Eric Warner, the Mighty M’s director of racing. “In an effort to keep the scales from tipping one way or the other, we intend to have the drivers make alternate picks on the 13-race card.

“After the Dec. 12 program is drawn we’ll flip a coin and the one who calls it correctly will have first choice of the horse he wants to drive in race one while the other gets his selection after that. Then (the loser) picks first in the next race and (the winner) second and we’ll alternate throughout the entire card.

“Someone said to me that they’ll pick the favorites, to which I replied that here at Monticello just over 35 percent of favorites win. That leaves room for everybody.”

The Dec. 12 race card will be drawn on Monday (Dec. 9).