from Meadowlands Media Relations
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – January 8, 2005 – Someone forgot to tell the open pacers that it was winter.
Whosurboy [$24.40, $11.60, $4.80] captured the featured $47,500 open pace, the fifth race on Saturday night at the Meadowlands, in 1:49.4, the first sub-1:50 mile ever posted in the month of January.
Jim Morrill Jr. moved the seven-year-old son of Artsplace on the backstretch to follow Life Source on the outer tier and got up in the final strides for a one-length victory over Daylon Trooper [$9.00, $5.20]. Life Source [$5.00] was third by a length. Make It Brief, the 4-5 favorite, faded to eighth.
Whosurboy, trained by Mark Ford and owned by C. Ed Mullinax of Amherst, Ohio, pushed his career earnings to $906,661 with his 28th victory in 155 career starts.
“He’s a nice little horse,” said Morrill. “He was just unbelievable tonight. Mark had him the best I’ve ever seen him. I knew he would be good tonight. He scored down super.”
“He’s not my favorite but he’s definitely in the top two,” said Ford. “He raced tremendous tonight. You can’t mess up around him or he’ll get you. He has earned almost $1 million, racing a lot and earning every nickel and dime he could all over the world. He’s absolutely remarkable. He’s just kept racing and racing. Because of the bad weather in Toronto, he had some time off. He was good last week. He just had too far to come. He was in a good spot tonight. Any horse in that race who gets a trip can be a factor. He’s just a professional. We’ll put him in next week and see how he does.”