from harness publicists across North America

Thursday’s (Dec. 8) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Monticello Raceway, Dover Downs and Cal Expo.

Mike Forte wins pair, closes in on 3,000 career wins

Monticello, NY — Mike Forte reined a pair of winners on the Thursday card of December 8 at Monticello Raceway and with those two driving victories Forte moves closer to 3000 career wins.

Geri Schwarz photo

Mike Forte

His first triumph was behind Lewis Miller’s trotter, Wayfarer, in a time of 2:05.2 and then he came back to win eighth race with Brian Walker and Brian Kleinberg’s 3-year-old old trotter, Absolutely Certain in 2:05.

Those victories gave Forte 148 at the current meeting which ranks him fifth on the leaderboard, but more importantly he now is just 15 wins from a personal milestone of 3000 driving victories.

Forte, 53, began driving in the late 1970’s and spent his early career racing in metropolitan New York. Although he raced sparingly at the Mighty M in those days he became a regular here in 2005 and has accumulated nearly 1,150 wins since then.

— John Manzi

Dover Downs
Starting in the second tier was no problem for Peace Bridge in a 1:58.4 win in the $13,500 feature trot on Thursday, Dec. 8 at Dover Downs. Brad Hanners had a driving triple. With Corey Callahan at the controls Peace Bridge came on in the stretch to post a 1:58.4 triumph. Owned by Beaver Creek Farm, the John Wagenhoffer trained Classic Photo-Peace N Harmony 4-year-old gelding bested Act One (Vic Kirby), second, and Master Montauk (Tim Curtin) third.

Cal Expo
The fitness of Alpine Hawk was uncertain going into the race. It wasn’t afterwards. A mixture of conditioned and claiming trotters, racing for a purse of $3,600, were featured at Cal Expo on Thursday night, in which the oldest horse in the race, Alpine Hawk, showed his younger foes. Holding on under hand-urging, the gelding won ($11.20) by a head. Owned by Jim Winske, trained by Gordie Graham and driven by Rich Wojcio, Alpine Hawk stopped the timer in a well-rated 1:58.3, for his 38th career triumph. Giles L S Hanover (Steve Wiseman) had to settle for second and Dudis Angel (Lemoyne Svendsen) finished 1-1/2 lengths farther back in third.