‘Yankee Joe’ Lee wins Monticello NAADA Trot
July 19, 2018,by John Manzi, for NAADA
Monticello, NY — When the gate sprung in the North American Amateur Drivers Association (NAADA) Trot at Monticello Raceway on Thursday afternoon (July 19), little was left for the imagination after “Yankee Joe” Lee gunned Soul Train to the lead and circled the Mighty M double-oval in 1:58.2.
Geri Schwarz photo
Soul Train and Joe Lee grooved to victory in Thursday’s NAADA Trot at Monticello Raceway.
“I had been racing him (Soul Train) from behind, but he didn’t seem to like passing horses when I moved him. So I figured I’d try to race him in front, and it seems that’s just what the old guy likes,” Lee said while hanging up the lines in the paddock after the contest. “This is the third time we won on the engine.”
When the starter said “go,” Lee hustled Soul Train to the lead and opened daylight on the field as a few got tangled on the first turn. But once in front, it seemed like the farther the veteran trotter went, the more his lead seemed impossible to overcome.
Soul Train, sent off as the odds-on favorite in the race, trotted by the first quarter in :28.1. Lee kept the pedal to the metal as they passed the halfway point in :57.4 with Paul Minore and Wygant Prince tight on his back. When they headed up the backside, Soul Train widened to a three-length lead by the third stanza and then increased to five lengths as the field headed for home.
With Lee swinging on him, Soul Train cruised home an easy winner. Keenan rallied to be second for John Calabrese, while Wygant Prince faded to third.
For Lee, who was last season’s National Amateur Driver of the Year, it marked his sixth driving victory this year and his win today places him atop the NAADA Summer Series leaderboard.
With his triumph Soul Train, a 7-year-old Trainforthefuture gelding, raised his career earnings to over $383,000. He is co-owned by Lee, the Blindswitch Stable, Good Friends Racing and Santo Farina, and trained by Jose Godinez. He paid $3.30.
NAADA members are getting ready to entertain their counterparts from Italy in early August for another Friendship competition. It will mark the third time this season that the longstanding international amateur organization will host amateur drivers from Europe.