by Frank Salive, publicity director, The Isle Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — A pair of renowned trotting specialist trainers, Ron Gurfein and Wayne Henry, sent out their first starters for 2010 on the Wednesday evening, Jan. 13, program at The Isle Pompano Park.

Lap Time Photo – Skip Smith

Commando K turned in a sharp 1:56.3 effort at The Isle Pompano Park.

The 69-year-old Gurfein, a seasonal resident of Delray Beach, Fla., had Commando K ready to go at first asking in a razor sharp 1:56.3 win over conditioned rivals. The Self Possessed-Secret Harmony 4-year-old gelding was a 2009 starter in the New Jersey Sires Stakes. The lightly raced but promising trotter won half of his six starts last year and won a Pompano qualifier on Jan. 8 in 1:59 to prepare for this impressive score in South Florida.

Personally for Gurfein, it was a milestone win of sorts. The 2005 inductee into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame has prepped numerous major stakes winners in his outstanding career for earnings approaching $23 million, and this win at Pompano was his 600th since the USTA began compiling trainer stats in 1991.

Wally Hennessey had Commando K on top all the way through a half in :58.2, with a back half just a tick faster in the wrapped up win. Rustico Dance Hall with Rick Schaut and Eggies Joy partnered by Richard Simard followed next under the wire.

Also sending out his first starters of 2010 on the Wednesday evening program was Ontario’s Wayne Henry. Youre Still The One, a 4-year- old SJ’s Caviar-Britt’s Spirit mare owned by Shelly Henry, was a hard closing third in a $5,000 conditioned test.

Henry is less than three years removed from his best year training in 2007 when his 414 starters won 57 times and raked in purse earnings of more than a million dollars. Along with 376 lifetime training wins, Henry is an accomplished driver in his own right with over 1,300 lifetime wins from a career focused on young trotters and the Ontario Sires Stakes.

He also started 4-year-old trotter Oaklea Riley on Wednesday evening, but that entrant failed to earn a check from an outside post nine start in his 2010 debut.

“We’re really happy to be back at our winter home base at the training center here,” the 46-year-old horseman said. “We brought quite a collection of 29 horses to Florida this year, including 14 2-year-olds. This year is different though since it’s the first year we don’t have any homebreds in our operation.”

When racing resumes at The Isle Pompano Park on Friday evening, Jan. 15, the first 2010 event for the Florida Amateur Driving Club will hit the track in the second race. Also on Friday night, Esmeralda Semalu puts a three race win streak on the line from an assigned outside post seven in the $13,000 Fillies and Mares Open Handicap Pace.