by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold, NJ — Tony Morgan wasn’t expecting to drive Black Cat Bone in Saturday’s (April 7) George Morton Levy Memorial division at Yonkers Raceway, but after the pacer was involved in an accident that unseated Patrick Berry, it was Morgan who ended up guiding the horse around the remainder of the track — all while driving his own Village Jate N to a fifth place finish.

Black Cat Bone unseated Berry after becoming tangled with a horse that went off stride during the opening half-mile. Morgan, who was following the field in seventh place, moved to the infield to avoid hitting the fallen Berry and was later able to grab Black Cat Bone as the loose horse followed behind Village Jate N. He had Black Cat Bone in tow for approximately half the race.

“I’ve done it a few times before,” said Morgan, who has 11,089 wins in his career and is a four-time recipient of Harness Tracks of America’s Driver of the Year Award. “He was following behind me, like they do in a race, and I reached over and grabbed a hold of him. My horse was pretty racy, so I just went on around. My horse was charging and wanted to finish the mile; I let him finish so I could pull him up easy.”

Village Jate N, trained by Kelvin Harrison, finished 40 lengths behind winner Cheyenne Hollywood and was timed in 2:04.1. Neither Black Cat Bone nor Berry was injured.

“I had a nice horse; he was real handy,” Morgan said. “He did what I asked of him and kept me out of trouble.”

Black Cat Bone is owned and trained by Erika Paradee. The 10-year-old has won 61 races lifetime and earned $760,080.

“What Tony did really meant a lot to me,” Paradee said. “It was a very selfless act. So many things could have happened; it happened real quickly. Black Cat Bone had one tiny scratch on him, and it could have been so much worse. I will be forever grateful to him.”