by Tim Bojarski, Batavia Downs Media Relations

Batavia, NY — Western New York veteran trainer JohnMungillo reached a major milestone at Batavia Downs on Wednesday afternoon(Oct. 11) and he did it in a very convincing manner. Mungillo sent out his3-year-old pacing filly Roll With Faith that he co-owns with Lawrence Willerand Finish Line Investors and watched her go wire to wire at 1-9 over a verysloppy race track in 1:57.3 to notch the 1,000^th trainingvictory of his career.

Paul White photo

Veteran trainer John Mungillo reached a major milestone at Batavia Downs on Wednesday afternoon posting his 1000th training win.

The grand achievement didn’t happen overnight, itwas a culmination of a lifetime’s labor.

Mungillo started working as a groom for Pete Mondiat Batavia Downs in 1981 and eventually became second trainer for Don Rothfusswhere he earned his driver’s license and started teaming regularly. WhenMungillo went on his own in 1986 his objective was to have horses from his barnwin, regardless of who did the driving and didn’t let ego stand in the way ofsuccess.

Although he did drive regularly from 1987-1989, hefocused more on training his stock from that point on and really startedaccumulating wins as his stable grew.

Mungillo’s career best training year was in 2013when he scored 155 wins with a .309 UTR and earnings of $683,812 as a result.For his entire training career Mungillo has 6,099 starts with 1,000 wins 860seconds and 791 thirds with $4,466,409 in purses. That’s 43% in the moneylifetime and that’s not too shabby.

Currently at the Downs Mungillo is racing ten horsesregularly and ranks eighth among all trainers with 13 wins, eight seconds and14 thirds off 84 starts and has banked $66,782 in purses so far. For the entireyear he has 32 wins and $202,945 in purses.

SqueezeThis breaks the bank in Batavia Downs feature

The feature race at Batavia Downs on Wednesday wasthe $10,000 Fillies and Mares Open Handicap Pace and Squeeze This paid bigdividends after being overlooked by the betting public and tripping-out to anarrow margin of victory.

Classy Lane Rose (Drew Monti) went right to thefront and seated all the girls behind her around the first turn. Exotic Beach(Larry Stalbaum) who had gotten away last, became restless at the eighth poleand pulled to start a slow, methodic march to the front. With Classy Lane Rosecomfortable on the lead, it took Exotic Beach another half mile outside beforeshe reached the pacesetter at the three-eighths pole to get within strikingrange.

Aware of the challenge at hand, Monti stepped upthe third quarter with his mare but the pesky Exotic Beach would not relent.The two then argued around the last turn before Classy Lane Rose showed somefatigue at the head of the stretch. It was there the pocket-sitting SqueezeThis (Billy Davis Jr.) snuck into the passing lane and zoomed by both of themto win by a nose in 1:57.2.

It was the fifth win of the year for Squeeze This($37.80) who now has $41,591 in the bank. Garth Bechtel owns the 5-year-oldAllamerican Native offspring that is trained by Jim Graham.

Racing resumes at Batavia Downs on Friday (Oct. 13)with post time at 6 p.m.