Racing Roundup: Three Of Spades does it again in $40,000 Dover feature
March 23, 2010,from Harness Publicists across North America
Monday’s (March 22) Racing Roundup features results stories from Dover Downs, The Meadows, Western Fair Raceway and Monticello Raceway. Three Of Spades does it again in $40,000 Dover feature Dover, DE — Three Of Spades displayed his closing punch in a 1:50.3 victory in the $40,000 Preferred Handicap Pace on a track labeled ‘good’ at Dover Downs on Monday.
Fotowon photo
Three Of Spades was a 1:50.3 winner on Monday at Dover.
After scoring a powerful 1:51 victory last week, Jon Roberts called on Three Of Spades late this time and they closed fast to secure a 1:50.3 triumph in the week’s top pace. Bill DeLodovico and trainer Bib Roberts own the Cam’s Card Shark-Triple Flip gelding, now a winner of four of 10 starts this year, with earnings of $92,840. Gottaservesomebody finished second with Tony Morgan. Next Adventure, a newcomer this week, finished third with Ron Pierce at the controls.
Proper Respect took a week off before coming back to the $37,000 Delaware Special and it paid off with a 1:51.4 score with Ron Pierce driving for Lou Tomcak. The McArdle-She Has The Look 5-year-old was the second training win of the day for Carlo Poliseno. Waipawa Lad N, piloted by Brad Hanners, was a strong second with Dollars Bromac N and Eric Goodell third.
Jon Roberts made it a big two win day by hustling Roll Call, an Artiscape-Jamine Gem gelding, three wide around the final turn to overtake front-pacing Next Flight (Jim Morand) for a 1:52.4 victory in the $30,000 Open Pace. Ideal Vintage (Ross Wolfenden) was third.
— Marv Bachrad
Chip Chip Mac holds on for Meadows series victory
Washington, PA — Chip Chip Mac made a confident quarter-pole move to the lead for Tony Hall, then hung on in the stretch to capture a division of the Triple Diamond at The Meadows. Staying Smooth was placed the winner in Monday’s other $15,000 division of the second leg of the series for 3- and 4-year-old colt and gelding trotters, giving Hall a driving sweep of the splits.
Stting third behind early leader Skymaster Ross, Chip Chip Mac moved crisply to the front and was strong enough to repel the outside challengers. But Skymaster Ross had plenty of trot left, charging through the Lightning Lane and erasing most of a 1-1/2 length deficit. Chip Chip Mac prevailed by a neck in a career-best 1:58.2, with King Chip K a rallying third.
Tye Loy trains Chip Chip Mac, a 4-year-old son of Chip Chip Hooray-Mac’s Caper K, for Bob Key.
Pinned inside before shaking loose late, Staying Smooth appeared destined for a place finish behind Global Winner K, a 17-race maiden entering the race who had made a second-over move to the front. But when Global Winner K broke stride in the shadow of the wire, Staying Smooth was promoted from second to first, with Global Winner K placed back to second. Monsieur De Vie was third.
Steve Bush trains Staying Smooth, a 4-year-old son of Conway Hall-Armbro Sassafras who has won two straight in the Triple Diamond, and owns with Mark Zallenick and Russell Zallenick.
Hall drove four winners and Aaron Merriman three on the 13-race card.
— Evan Pattak
Connected Yankee continues to shine in London London, ON — Since moving to Western Fair Raceway early last month Connected Yankee has shown a definite affinity towards the half-mile oval as he demonstrated once again Monday in the featured Preferred Trot.
Iron Horse Photo
Paul MacKenzie piloted Connected Yankee home in 2:00.1.
Paul MacKenzie sent the 8-year-old gelding directly to the top and never looked back to win by more than four lengths in 2:00.1 over the track rated ‘good.’ Bertorico was second followed by Dash Car.
A regular at Rideau Carleton Raceway before being claimed last month by William Hood, Connected Yankee was scoring his second win in Western Fair’s top trotting class in his last three tries. Joe Pereira trains the winner of $261,291 lifetime.
The co-featured C$13,500 Preferred Pace also saw the favorite go gate-to-wire as Button Up was home with a two length advantage in 1:57 for Mike Horner over Donegal Gerald and Oakley Seelster. It was the second straight win in this class for the 7-year-old son of Northern Luck owned by Sure Gain Stable and trained by Mark Horner. Button Up upped his career bankroll to $491,050 with Monday night’s share of the purse.
Sammy Syd used a completely different style to prevail in the C$11,500 Mares Preferred. The 6-year-old Astreos daughter sat last for the majority of the mile before powering home to win in 1:58.1 for Mike Whelan over Desir and Tennessee Starlit. Trained by Jean Young, who co-owns with Gord Young, Sammy Syd now has two wins and a second in three starts so far this year.
— Western Fair Media Relations
Merton continues to close in on 3,000 win plateau
Monticello, NY — Greg Merton is closing in on 3,000 career wins, most of which have been recorded at his hometown racetrack, Monticello Raceway. On the Monday card, the Monticello native reined two more winners and now is just 12 victories from the career milestone.
His first victory on the card came in the ninth race when he guided Denmar Stables and Alexander Kantonist’s Sweetys Finale to a gate-to-wire, 2:03 triumph. Merton then won the 10th race behind Jennifer Lappe’s Polly S Turr in a 2:01.4 clocking. With those victories Merton now has 58 for the meet which ranks him third on the local leaderboard behind Bruce Aldrich, Jr. (92) and Bill Dobson (76).
“When Bruce Aldrich ( Jr.) was checking on his computer the other day he mentioned to me that I was closing in on 3,000 wins, too” Merton said. “I knew I was getting close but I tried not to think about it and just keep giving it a shot. I believe when you start thinking about things like that you put pressure on yourself and I don’t want to do that.”
The lanky reinsman first sat behind a racing Standardbred in 1989 when he won three of seven amateur races at the Mighty M. After a little more than a handful of drives Merton’s career didn’t really get underway until 1995 when the home-grown product won 36 races that season. And it wasn’t until 1999 that he topped the century plateau in seasonal races won. That year he reined 170 winners and the following year he vaulted to the top in races won at the Mighty M when he finished the season with 274 winners.
After that year, only the campaigns of 2002 (152 wins) and 2003 (174) produced less than 200 winners for Merton, who turned 36 years of age back on December 14. During 2005 he notched his second driving championship at Monticello Raceway. He piloted 357 winners that season of which his 288 here topped the local leaderboard.
And beginning in 2004 and continuing into this season Merton’s seasonal purse earnings have topped $1 million with $1.63 million in 2005 being his best output thus far.
— John Manzi