by John Manzi, publicity director, Monticello Raceway

Monticello, NY — Last Thursday the northeast was inundated with heavy snow and the Monticello, N.Y. region had snowfall amounts ranging from 38-42 inches, which followed 18 inches that dropped from the heavens just two days earlier. The unbelievable snow amounts forced cancellation of the Thursday, Feb. 26, card at Monticello Raceway and for that matter the entire racino was closed for over 31 hours, also.

The next scheduled race card at the Mighty M went as advertised on Monday afternoon, March 1, but it was no easy task. Track assistant general manger Shawn Wiles and his track maintenance crew worked diligently for days clearing the racetrack and the parking lots. And with 42 inches of new snow it was no easy task.

Geri Schwarz photo

Mike Micallef and Nite Games cruised to a 1:58.2 triumph in the pacing feature.

“The snow was so heavy that plowing it was a hard job since the snow was wet and heavy. And even before the plowing was completed we needed to hire outside help to cart away the plowed snow,” Wiles related. “Our crews worked diligently for over three and a half days but we had the racetrack in pretty good form by post time Monday afternoon.”

And proof that the racetrack was in good shape, Mike Micallef drove Nite Games, a 6-year-old daughter of Astreos owned by James Voldock, to her second consecutive triumph, a 1:58.2 clocking in the daily pacing feature.

And even in the first race on the card, newcomer Brandon Simpson rallied Orville Rursch’s 5-year-old pacing mare Impressive Char to a 2:00.1 victory.

Despite all the problems endured by the citizens in the northeast — initially over 1 million homes were without electricity and tens of thousands are still without — on Monday race fans still poured over $815,000 through the mutuel windows that took action on the races at the Mighty M.