by John Manzi, publicity director, Monticello Raceway

Monticello, NY — The Dominic Macedonio Pacing Series, named for the longtime Mighty M horseman who passed away last year, began on Jan. 5 and continued with three weekly legs toward a final which is set to go to post on Thursday afternoon (Jan. 26).

With separate divisions for fillies and mares and for horses and geldings the finals of the $4,000 claiming series in which no starters could be claimed, will feature the highest point earners in the divisional events. The consolation will consist of the next highest point-earners.

The mares division final will go for a purse of $5,600 and features previous leg winners Space Chalet and Jessalilmixup. The former is a two-time divisional winner and will have Alan Schwartz at the controls while the latter turned in the fastest win time of 2:00.4 in the preliminaries.

The horses and geldings will lock horns in the fifth race for a purse of $6,400. That finale carries a pair of stable entries among the eight starters. One of trainer Bill Devine’s entrants is Big Rueben, a 2:01.4 preliminary leg winner who’ll start from the pole position with Rick Harp aboard.

Trainer Elisha Lafreniere has a powerful pair in Imposter A and Optimist N, the former a three-time series winner whose fastest clocking was 1:59.3 two starts ago, while the latter won in 2:00.1 in the first series leg. Mike Forte will drive Imposter A and leave from post three while Drew Campbell will handle Optimist N from the six hole.

The series consolation features a pair of stable entries, all who were runners-up to those who made the finale. Bill Devine has a pair rated 5-2 on the morning line and the other pair are from the Bill Kapinos barn and are rated 3-1 by the local oddsmaker. They’ll face- off in the eighth race on the card.

Post time for the 13 race card will be at 12:25 p.m.