by John Manzi, publicity director, Monticello Raceway

Monticello, NY — Though the rain drizzled down and the racetrack was taking on water, Lively Moment covered the 1-3/4 mile distance in world record time in the Monticello Marathon on Monday afternoon, December 15.

Geri Schwarz photo

Lively Moment was a 3:42.4 winner in the Monticello Marathon.

The 5-year-old daughter of Master Lavec, in rein to Bruce Aldrich, Jr., was a decisive winner in a new North American and world record time of 3:42.4 for a trotter over a half-mile track.

In one of the more unusual race distances, Lively Moment’s clocking shattered the former record of 3:45.2 set right here at Monticello Raceway during the 1998 campaign by Poppa IM and driver Jack Rice.

Match That, who set the Mighty M record of 1:57.1 for older trotting mares this past summer, finished second for driver Billy Dobson, some 5-1/2 lengths behind the winner. Third place went to Thasos, in rein to Jordan Stratton.

One would think that keeping back off the early pace would be the ideal way to approach the long distance race but Aldrich wanted no part of that. He gunned his mare to the front when the gate sprung and they were on top before the field came off the first turn. From there they raced comfortably on the front-end the entire way.

“Bob (trainer Bob Lounsbury) said Lively Moment would be real good today and I believed him so I sent her right to the lead,” Aldrich said after the victory. “And he wasn’t lyin’. Lively Moment was still strong at the finish.”

Along the journey some of the drivers were somewhat confused about how many revolutions they were going in the race.

At was is usually the three-eighths pole Billy Parker, Jr. moved Perfect Gerry up to challenge Aldrich and Lively Moment but as he was passing Jordan Stratton and Thasos, who were trotting along in third position, Stratton yelled over to Parker, “Hey Zeke, we still have another mile to go!”

Aldrich himself admitted that during the course of the competition he had a hard time recalling how much further they had to go to the finish.

“You know,” Aldrich added with a chuckle, “with all the movement in the race it was hard to keep track of exactly where we were and how far we had to go. But my mare was strong on the engine and we just kept going forward.”

When asked how he felt about winning the marathon Aldrich wasted no time in saying, “I’m honored to have a world record. The race was something different and it was a lot of fun.”

Lively Moment is owned by the King Of The Castle Stable of White Plains, N.Y. She was sent off as the favorite in the race and paid $5.20 for win.