from harness publicists around North America

Monday’s (Nov 21) Racing Roundup features results stories from Dover Downs and Monticello Raceway.

Artists Rally wins Delaware Special at Dover

Dover, DE — Artists Rally closed strongly to score a 1:51.4 victory in the $30,000 Delaware Special pace feature at Dover Downs on Monday, Nov. 21.

Fotowon photo

Artists Rally scored his fifth win of the season on Monday at Dover Downs.

With Jim Morand in the bike, the Real Artist-Spunky Gal gelding bested front-pacing Highbeam Rusty N (Corey Callahan) and Nova Artist (Allan Davis) and to win the week’s top overnight event for owner-trainer Ed Gannon Jr. The win was the fifth of the year for Artists Rally now a winner of $80,610 in 2011 earnings. The loss ended a two-race win streak for Highbeam Rusty N. Cams Art and Roman Conqueror N were both scratched in the feature.

Five $16,000 paces shared the sub-feature winning role. Roger Plante steered Jim Behrendt’s Furious Frank to a 1:51 triumph in the first male winners-over pace. The clocking is a career best for the Badlands Hanover-Fresh Outlook gelding. Benns Shotgun (Vic Kirby) was second with Beignet (Montell Teague) the show horsed.

In another division, Harry von Knoblauch’s Polaris N made it two straight wins taking a male winners-over pace in 1:51.1. Dr. Dreamy (Montrell Teague) was runner-up. Veteran Art Director (Tim Curtin) finished third.

— Marv Bachrad

Monticello Raceway
The battle for driving supremacy at the Mighty M between Billy “Zeke” Parker, Jr. and Bruce Aldrich, Jr. continues and probably will right down to the wire. On the Monday afternoon card, Zeke reeled off four more winners while Aldrich uncharacteristically got skunked but the bearded wonder still trails “the Brucester” by 12 wins, 356-344. Parker scored with Whiskey Gal (1:58.4) in the fourth and then reeled off two in a row, capturing the seventh with Warden Woody (1:56.2) and the eighth with Hey Nugget (2:00.3). He capped his day with a 1:58 triumph behind Pembroke Lil in the 10th race. With those victories Parker now has 10,578 in his illustrious career. Although Parker has won 17 driving titles at Monticello Raceway over the years, he still wouldn’t mind adding another to his resume. Not surprisingly, he holds the track record of 526 winners which was established during the 1995 campaign. Aldrich, on the other hand, is seeking his fourth title — and second consecutive — and seems more engrossed in winning his second consecutive title than his childhood idol. Aldrich was proud of his 449 winners last year, which was the second best yearly output ever in the track’s 53-year history. He currently has driver 3,862 winners in his career.