Eric Carlson opens Monday Pocono card with 3,000th driving victory
April 16, 2018,from the PHHA/Pocono
Wilkes-Barre, PA — Eric Carlson wasted no time in recording his 3,000th career victory Monday night (April 16) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, taking the first race of the night with Call Me Richard for the milestone victory.
Curtis Salonick photo
Eric Carlson recorded his 3,000th career victory Monday with Call Me Richard.
Call Me Richard pressed forward to control the pace over Monday’s sloppy racetrack at Pocono, and he opened up a large lead towards the three-quarter pole. In the stretch Holy Halibut, second choice to the winning favorite, made up some late ground, but Carlson kept after his charge and crossed the wire with a safe 1-1/4 length margin at the end of the 1:57.3 mile.
The 42-year-old Carlson was half that age when he won his first race, an FFA pace worth $930, at the Fowlerville, Mich., Fair with Calamity Clyde. Eric grabbed industry attention in 2010, when he won 603 races, sixth-highest in North America, while dominating the Detroit circuit. He soon afterwards decided to take his driving skills eastward, with his earnings benefiting from the transplantation: his best money year was 2014, when his horses brought in $5.3 million of his career $27.3 million tally.
- Sharen Hanover, Kimberlee are Weiss winners at Pocono (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)
Sharen Hanover and Kimberlee both recorded their second victories in the Bobby Weiss Series for pacing females on Monday night (April 16) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, where earlier in the dank evening Eric Carlson recorded his 3,000th driving victory.