by Joe Hartmann, for Plainridge Racecourse

Plainville, MA –– With more than 3,200 victories and over $15 million in purse earnings, driver Mark Beckwith has had more than his share of opportunities to win big races.

But none would mean much more to him than if he were to score a driving victory in the race named in his father’s honor, the $50,000 Bert Beckwith Memorial Pace on Monday afternoon at Plainridge Racecourse.

Beckwith, one of the top drivers at Yonkers and during the summer at Rockingham Park, will have that opportunity Monday afternoon as he climbs into the sulky behind Glen Mark Lucky in the Beckwith Pace. He has competed in the race in the past, but has never won the race named for his late father.

A six-year-old gelded son of Camluck, out of the Armbro Emerson mare St George Sweetie, Glen Mark Lucky and Beckwith combined to set the Plainridge track record for older gelding pacers earlier this year when they paced to a 1:50² new lifetime mark in besting a field of Open pacers.

Glen Mark Lucky has scored victories on half-mile, five-eighths and mile tracks this year and was second to Royal Mattjesty in Harrington’s $135,000 War On The Shore.

Plainridge President and CEO Gary T. Piontkowski called this year’s Beckwith field, “The deepest field in the history of the race.”

All nine starters in the field have lifetime marks of 1:51 or faster and five of the nine have recorded sub-1:50 miles.

The entire field for the $50,000 Bert Beckwith Memorial, in post order with listed drivers includes: Glen Mark Lucky (Mark Beckwith), Silver D Moon (Steve Smith), Art Attack (Ted Wing), Carlspur (Steve Salerno), Rob Roy Mattgregor (Yannick Gingras), Whosurboy (Mike MacDonald), Ashlee’s Big Guy (Tim Curtin), Six Of Diamonds (Drew Campbell) and Gene Carter (Dave Palone).

Beckwith Day festivities will be the culmination of a three-day Labor Day Weekend Block Party at Plainridge. Post times all weekend are 1:00 p.m.

In addition to the Beckwith, the biggest event of the year on the Plainridge Racecourse menu, there will be four other major stakes events on the Labor Day card. Also to be contested are the $20,000 Ron Pasquantonio Memorial Trot, the $25,000 Guy Smith Memorial Pace Final, the $15,000 James Winters Memorial Pace and the $10,000 Jim Morrill Memorial Pace.

Kicking off the Labor Day festivities will be the induction of driver-trainer Greg Bowden to Plainridge’s Wall of Fame. Bowden, with more than 2,700 career driving victories and more than $5 million in purses earned, will join other New England racing legends on the Wall of Fame in ceremonies which will begin at 12:30 p.m.

Located conveniently between Boston and Providence, Plainridge Racecourse offers live racing three days per week and the most extensive simulcast menu of harness, thoroughbred and quarter horse racing in the country, seven days a week.