from Meadowlands Publicity Department

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – March 7, 2004 – Pinetucky [$11.80, $5.60, $3.40] commanded the lead past the quarter and dug in for a neck victory over Cosington [$3.80, $2.80] in the $84,500 Horse & Groom Final, the seventh race, on Sunday afternoon at the Meadowlands.

Driver Yannick Gingras steered Pinetucky around early traffic as Rickie broke stride in front of him. After clearing the top, he refused to yield to the 9-5 favorite Cosington and stole a 30.3 third-quarter breather. Pinetucky trotted the mile in a lifetime best 1:55.1.

“If nobody had made a break, I probably would have let Cosington go,” Gingras said. “But Rickie made a break and he was the horse to beat, in my opinion. That was the key move to winning the race, not to let Cosington go. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have caught him. That allowed me to get away with a third-quarter breather. My horse is so game, he was trotting out of his skin.”

Trevor Ritche tipped Cosington out of the pocket in the stretch but was unable to reach Pinetucky after the slow middle fractions. Five Kids [$3.60] was forced to check up when Greensview Hanover made a break on
the first turn, but was able to slip up the rail late to finish third.

“He left out of there fabulously,” said Ritchie. “When the gate folded, I crossed over handily. When Yannick made his move, I took hold of him. Yannick did the right thing for himself, as it turned out. I knew from sitting behind him [Gingras with Pinetucky] last week that he had a lot of horse so I wasn’t concerned about being behind him. That third quarter made it pretty tough to catch them.”

Trained by George Berkner, Pinetucky scored his third win in four starts this season. The five-year-old son of Pine Chip capped off 2003 with a victory in the $52,750 Charles Singer Series Final on December 10 at the Meadowlands. A $110,000 yearling purchase by owner Robert Rosenheim of Sharon, Connecticut, Pinetucky did not make his first career start until age four due to an early injury.

Pinetucky has benefited from a lot of time in the swimming pool and a lot of patience from his caretaker, Laura Gowaty.

“Laura Gowaty swims him and takes care of his feet,” Berkner said. “I think she works on him 24 hours a day, taking him to the pool and working on his feet and knees. She is the one keeping this horse together, not his trainer.

“As it was explained to me, he had taken a bad step when training down later in his two-year-old season,” he said. “Mr. Rosenheim is very conservative with his horses and does not race them unless they are 100 percent. So they turned him out at his farm in Saratoga, New York. He started out with Peter Blood then went to Kim Crawford, his trainers. He made a couple of starts locally and then was sent to me because I’m stabled at Showplace [Farm in Englishtown, New Jersey], which is a spectacular facility with a swimming pool. We swam him and towed him on the inner track and just tried to keep his feet together. He’s a big healthy horse right now and one of the gamest horses I’ve ever been around.”