by John Manzi, for the Billings Series

Nichols, NY — The beauty of the Billings Amateur Driving Series is that its a traveling program where the competitors get a chance to exhibit their abilities on different size racetracks throughout the nine-month season. On Saturday ( July 7) the race was over Tioga Downs’ five-eighths mile oval in New York’s southern tier and after a hard fought battle “Coach Paul” Minore and his veteran trotter, Wygant Prince, withheld a late charge by Aventure and driver “Tough Tony” Ciuffetelli to score a 1:57.3 victory.

Geri Schwarz photo

Wygant Prince wins the Billings Series event at Tioga Downs on Saturday evening.

Overlooked by the attending public Wygant Prince paid $25.40 for win.

When the six-horse field was approaching the starting line the rail horse and even-money favorite, Fleet Honeybee (“Yankee Joe” Lee), went off-stride and was never in contention thereafter.

When the mobile gate sprung Wygant Prince, racing from the two-hole, allowed Uriel from post position six and “Annie Get Your Gun” Stoebe, to gain command in the 28-second first quarter. When all the trotters lined up in single file Wygant Prince got to enjoy a two-hole journey until the field headed to the third stanza.

As the leaders rounded the final turn Minore kept his charge along the pylons and rallied past Uriel and braced for the hard charging Aventure. In the deep stretch Wygant Prince and Aventure matched stride for stride but at the finish Minore’s trotter got the last call for a head victory. Uriel finished two lengths behind the top two for third money.

The winner, an 11-year-old altered son of SJ’s Photo, notched his sixth seasonal triumph and 37th of his illustrious career while raising his career earnings to over $411,000. Wygant Price is owned by his driver and trained by Taylor Gower.