by Don Bielak, publicity director, Freehold Raceway
Freehold, NJ — Freehold Raceway will usher in the New Year with a big 15 race card of harness racing action on Saturday, New Year’s Day. To accommodate the extra race, first post has been moved to 12:15 p.m.
The Saturday slate is loaded with competitive, high caliber events. No less than 11 races carry purses of $9,000 or more, with the highlight of the card being the featured $18,000 Invitational handicap for pacers, which has drawn an excellent field of eight.
At 3-1, the morning line favorite in the main event is owner/trainer Richard Banca’s Life Source. The eight-year-old Life Sign gelding amassed a 9-12-3 across the board record in 33 starts in 2004. Racing primarily against Open and Invitational company, Life Source paced a 1:48 mile at the Meadowlands in 2004 and earned $665,558 in purses, increasing his lifetime total to nearly $1.5 million.
Life Source has been assigned the outside post eight. Hall of Famer Cat Manzi will be in the sulky.
One that figures to show vast improvement on his latest is Devils Claw N. In the December 18 edition of the Invitational handicap at Freehold, the six-year-old gelded son of Albert Albert was forced to race from behind, leaving from post eight, and was never able to seriously threaten while finishing fifth.
Prior to that outing, however, Devils Claw N had scored a powerful 1:53.2 victory over Invitational types at Freehold on December 11, and a return to that form would make him dangerous in Saturday’s feature.
Trainer Monico Stanislao has named Jeff Gregory to drive. The duo will leave the gate from post three as the 7-2 second choice in the early line.
Rounding out the field for the Invitational are: Chewy Gross, Cam’s Fast Gun, Carlspur, Yulestar N, Daylon Trooper and Sudden Strike.