by John Manzi, for NAADA and the Catskill Amateur Club

Monticello, NY — Hannah Miller has taken amateur racing by storm. The 24-year-old miss scored her 19th victory in 58 seasonal starts when she guided Rise Above It to a 1:57.3 victory in their division of the Catskill Amateur Club’s spring pacing series at Monticello Raceway on Thursday (July 2).

“Hurricane Hannah” is carrying a lofty .485 UDR, so one can easily understand the betting public’s faith in her abilities.

Jeanne Zukowski photo

Rise Above It was a 1:57.3 winner for Hannah Miller.

Sent off as the odds-on favorite in her race, Miller left softly with Rise Above It and when the field settled she moved first-up as the field headed to the half.

“He’s not a horse that can leave real hard and I knew Matt (Zuccarello with Minnesota Hanover) would be pushing off from the rail so I let everyone settle and then moved first over,” Miller explained.

Up the backside Rise Above it charged to the front and on the final turn he had five lengths on the field. From there he cruised home an easy winner over CC’s Lover and Alan Schwartz. Third place went to Logan’s Dragon driven by Dr. Jennifer Lowrey.

“He raced real well and was looking for company at the wire,” Miller added.

Owned by Melvin Fink and Clifford Grundy, Rise Above It paid $2.70 for win. He’s trained by Nick Surick who had thanks for the owners when he said, “I just want to thank my owners Mel and Cliff for letting Hannah use their horse in the series and supporting her and it paid off for them today with a win in the series finale.”

In the NAADA Series driver Joe Pennacchio made it two in a row in with Sir Winston when he guided the veteran gelding to a 2:01 victory over Superiorcourt and driver Bob Krivelin. Third place went to Alan Schwartz with Chuckie B.

After a 2:00.1 victory last week while racing on the front end, Pennacchio and Sir Winston duplicated that effort and once again raced on the lead.

“I said last week if he doesn’t bleed he’d win and he didn’t and we won,” Pennacchio said. “He didn’t bleed this week either and he won again.”

When two horses broke at the start Pennacchio and Sir Winston raced unhurriedly on the lead and got away with easy fractions for the classy old veteran. After a soft half Pennacchio parked all comers and Sir Winston finished strong for a 1-1/2 length triumph.

Despite a victory last week and starting from the pole position today the betting crowd didn’t have much faith and sent Sir Winston off at odds of more than 7-1. Owned by Joe P Racing and trained by Dan Altman he paid $16.40 to win.