Pierce is in his prime
February 12, 2004,from the Meadowlands Publicity Department
Driver Ron Pierce is not getting older; he is getting better.
Coming off his first $9 million year, Pierce has moved to the top of the Meadowlands driver standings, through February 11, with 48 wins, 37 seconds and 31 thirds from 263 starts for earnings of $725,689.
“The key to any hot streak is obviously you have to have the stock in front of you and drive for the powerful, sharp trainers,” said Pierce. “I’m very lucky to be driving for them. I’m 47 years old but everything has come late for me in life. It just seems I’ve had to wait for everything I’ve wanted. I’m in better shape now than I’ve ever been in my life. I weigh around 146, and my body fat is very low. I’m just really tuned up.
“I more or less go into every race with an open mind,” Pierce said. “I love driving for guys like Noel Daley, Brett Pelling, Ross Croghan and Mark Silva. They never tell me how to race their horses.
I’ve been driving for about 25 years now, so I know what to do, and they know I’m not going to abuse their horses. I go with the flow of each race. When I go behind the gate, I take things as they come. Then, I often let my horse dictate what I’m going to do, more than what the other drivers are doing. I love to win and sometimes I’m still surprised when I win.”
Some of Pierce’s top horses of 2003 included trotters Tom Ridge and Mr Muscleman as well as pacers I Am A Fool and E Dee’s Cam.
“When it came to driving Tom Ridge, [trainer] Jimmy Takter approached me in the driver’s room, and asked me to commit to him,” said Pierce. “This was after he won his qualifier and his first two starts. So, I told him it was no problem.
“Winning the Peter Haughton Memorial [with two-year-old Tom Ridge last summer] was the absolute highlight of my year,” said Pierce.
“I was very honored being in the winner’s circle next to Dorothy Haughton. As a little guy, I watched her go to the winner’s circle with her husband, Billy Haughton, with all of those great horses.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I wish I had Tom Ridge [a year to young to be eligible] in the Hambletonian that week and gave him a trip,” Pierce noted. “He might have actually won. That’s how good he was at that point. He finished up the year a little off form. That’s why Jimmy quit with him early. He’s filled out more, he’s razor sharp and they’re putting extra miles into him to keep him settled down.
“Mr Muscleman wasn’t as hard to drive as it looked,” he said, referring to the divisional champion as Three-Year-Old Trotter of the Year in 2003 who won the Breeders Crown and Kentucky Futurity. “He didn’t want to run [break]. He’s just not the prettiest gaited horse.
He just tried real hard and had a lot of guts. I believe they started jogging him back last week.
“Brett [trainer Brett Pelling’ had I Am A Fool on his toes and sharp as a tack in the Breeders Crown,” Pierce recalled. “This colt has some fight to him. He’ll be a big factor this year. I stopped by Brett’s barn last week. The colt came back from Kentucky two weeks ago.
The guy who looks after him said, ‘Ron, you have to take a look at this horse.’ He really filled out, bulked up and looks very majestic.
“E Dee’s Cam really surprised me winning the Presidential [on January 24],” Pierce said. “When he broke down last year, they said he was all done. Noel Daley went to work on him, and, to tell you the truth, some of us thought they started this horse back up too soon. But Noel didn’t think so and everything worked out.
“Diamond Goal was good up in Canada, but he just wasn’t getting involved in his races,” said Pierce, who lives in Clarksburg, New Jersey. “Down here he’s shown that he can trot [winning two open trots in January].
“Molly Can Do it had a very good tightener last week [in the first round of the Cape & Cutter],” he said. “Linda [trainer Linda Toscano] is going to open up her Murphy Blind on the inside, and she should be perfect. She’ll be much better this week. “Mark [trainer Mark Silva] made some shoeing and equipment changes on Iron Legend, and he’s got an engine,” he said of the 2004 Clyde Hirt Series winner. “I wasn’t planning on racing him up there on the front end, but we wound up there and he toughed it out.”
FULL SEASON OF STAKES AHEAD FOR SURE SIGN
With motherhood delayed, Sure Sign is back at the track and eyeing the second of two $35,000 divisions of the Cape & Cutter Series, the third race on Friday night at the Meadowlands.
The Miss New Jersey winner at three, Sure Sign has a full schedule of stakes ahead of her for her four-year-old season.
“I was real pleased with the season she had last year,” said trainer and co-owner Charles Connor Jr. “There were a few people trying to buy her, and they didn’t quite come up with enough money. We had considered breeding her, but she’s a pretty sound mare, so we might as well race her. She’s filled out a ton. She wore a 58 and a half-inch hobble as a two year old, and she’s got a 61-inch hobble on right now.”
At three, the daughter of Life Sign compiled a record of eight wins, five seconds and two thirds from 21 starts for earnings of $324,012 and at two, she won 10 with two seconds from 12 starts for $268,588. Her career total now tops $592,000. Not bad for a $17,000 yearling purchase for Connor, John Fodera of Staten Island, New York; Martha Frank of Fair Lawn, New Jersey and Ted Gewertz of New York City.
In the first round of the Cape & Cutter, her first start since December 13, Sure Sign finished sixth.
“She just takes a couple of starts to get good,” said Connor, a 49-year-old Maine native. “I though the qualifier [on January 30] might have been better, but we didn’t get a chance to race in it and get a good line on her. Last week, the sloppy track was pretty bad, yet she doesn’t mind that too much as a rule. She needed a good tightener. I told [driver] Dave Miller to be conservative with her. She was actually too aggressive in the qualifier, so Dave asked me to put an open bridle on her. We did that last week, but we didn’t get a fair chance to make a good observation. We’ll keep it on her this week and see how she races in it. If she gets too calm in it, she might need the Kant-See-Back back on.
“She’s staked to everything at the Meadowlands, including the Lady Liberty and the Breeders Crown,” Connor noted. “I believe she will measure up to the top mares. She has the size and she’s rugged enough, and the size of the track doesn’t matter to her. She’s flawlessly gaited. You wish every horse in the barn was gaited like her. She paces Freehold like the Meadowlands. She races just as hard on those tight turns as the straightaways. She just has a lot of natural athletic ability. This series will certainly get her ready for the Overbid. I wanted to get her started and rolling. I’m concerned with getting her fit and ready for the really big money later on.”
The top 10 money earners in the first two weeks of Cape & Cutter action will advance to the $85,650 final on February 20.
Six finals will span Winter Festival Weekend at the Meadowlands with the $85,650 Cape & Cutter and the $76,500 Tender Loving Care on Friday, February 20; the $72,275 Aquarius, $70,000 Exit 16W and $95,000 Junior Trendsetter on Saturday, February 21 and the $87,400 Senior Trendsetter Final on Sunday, February 22.
Connor, who is stabled at Pocono Downs assisted by his wife, Janice, and daughter, Jennifer, has more firepower than just Sure Sign in his stable.
“Right now, I’m down to 18 horses because I just sold six, five at the Meadowlands Sale,” he explained. “We’ve got nine two-year-olds. I’ve always enjoyed working with the young ones. Next year I’m definitely going south some place and not just because of the weather.
The reason I sold some was I owned a piece of them all, and I wanted to make stake payments on these babies. It’s too early yet and they all look good going in 2:50.
“We’ve also put three kids through college and just did what we could to survive,” he noted. “Now it’s nice when you pick up two nice horses like Sure Sign and Squaw’s Fella. My oldest son Brian gets out of college this year. He’s going to St. John Fisher in Rochester, New York. He takes computer communications and broadcasting. My daughter, Jennifer graduated from the University of South Carolina. My youngest boy, Christopher is a junior in college in Oswego, New York.
Squaw’s Fella also had a sensational 2003 season, with nine wins and a second in 10 starts, a bankroll of $250,776 and a mark of 1:53.1 at the Meadowlands. The Pacific Fella colt, owned by Carol Pilger and Marland Dulaney, of Kingston, Pennysylvania, defeated Modern Art in the $150,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes Final in 1:53.4.
“Squaw’s Fella filled out a great deal and grew up a lot,” Connor reported. “He was a pretty good size horse even though it didn’t look like it on TV because he goes with such a low head. I feel with him there’s no reason to hurry much until a week before the eliminations for the Berry’s Creek. There’s no sense in worrying about everything else after that. You can only have a horse good for so many races.
We’ll time everything for the Meadowlands, and if he still looks good we’ll supplement him to face the big ones.
“Every agent in the country had tried to buy him, but his owners really don’t need to sell him,” he said. “They’re pleased with him, and he’s done everything they wanted him to do. They’re not in it to sell a horse like this. They want to enjoy it.”
Connor, who was born in Augusta, Maine, started his career racing the county fair in Windsor, Maine.
“My dad was involved, and he passed away in 1985,” he noted. “My mother’s father was the one who got my father in it. They were both welders in the shipyards in Bath, Maine. My dad worked for my grandfather on the side.”
The Meadowlands will offer wagering on the three pool Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks Future Wagers, starting this weekend.
The year’s first pools for both the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks Future Wagers opened at noon (EST) on Thursday, February 12, and betting on both wagers will close at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 15.
Pool two of both the Derby and Oaks Future Wagers will be open March 11 through 14, and the third and last of the three pools for both wagers will be open from April 1 through 4.
The $1 million Kentucky Derby, America’s premier race for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds has been scheduled for Saturday, May 1 at Churchill Downs. The companion event for fillies, the $500,000, added Kentucky Oaks will be raced on Friday, April 30.
The Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks Future Wagers allow racing fans to place wagers on contenders for the
The Future Wager on both races is a two dollar minimum wager and is a win bet only. There are 24 wagering interests in each pool of the Future Wagers, which include 23 individual horses and a mutuel field which contains all other 3-year-old Thoroughbreds. There are no refunds on either wager.
The Kentucky Derby Future Wager is now in its sixth year and the mutuel field has been favored at the conclusion of the opening pool in each of the wager’s first five years. The Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, which has entered its second year, has been expanded to three pools for the first time after the bet was offered in a single pool during its inaugural year.