by John Manzi, for the NAADA

Monticello, NY — The eighth and next to last preliminary leg in the North American Amateur Drivers Association’s charity trotting series saw New Jersey native Brad Rathbone rein his veteran trotter Killer Whale to a wire-to-wire triumph at Freehold Raceway last Saturday afternoon (May 4).

The 10-year-old Malabar Man gelding won by two lengths in a time of 1:59.2 over a trio of trotters who hit the wire nearly simultaneously. When the judges printed the photo, the betting favorite, For Goodness Lindy and driver Paul Minore, were second best while Whatnblazes and Dave Offenberg finished third. Just a whisker behind those two in fourth place was Nowerland Nathan and Dave Yarock.

“He is a very classy old horse,” Rathbone said of Killer Whale. “He has won over $300,000 and was an open trotter when he was younger. He had an injury a few years ago and has been raced sparingly since then.

“This was his fourth start of the year and for the previous three weeks he’s been raced out of a hole but he didn’t finish well. He warmed up real good today so I suggested we try him on the front-end.

“When I sent him out of there we grabbed the lead immediately and although he trotted fast early fractions (:28.1 and :58) that didn’t seem to hurt him. When we turned for home he was still strong and we won it easily.”

Killer Whale is owned and trained by Michael Reynolds. He paid $16.00, $6.40 and $4.20 across the board.

It was the first season’s victory for Killer Whale and the also the first win (from two starts) for Rathbone.

The final preliminary leg of the NAADA series will be on Saturday (May 11) at Freehold Raceway. The $14,000 NAADA final will be raced at Yonkers Raceway on Thursday (May 23).

According to NAADA president Joe Faraldo, after the completion of the trotting series the amateur drivers organization will again make a sizable donation to a worthwhile charity.