MR - TROTTERS FEATURED ON WEDNESDAYS AT MONTICELLO RACEWAY-CHIP AND RUN WINS THE FEATURED TROT

Wednesdays are the days when Director of Racing Eric Warner cards races for the best trotters on the grounds and has been doing so for years. Warner feels, and rightly so, that having the better trotters race consistently on Wednesdays is good for all concerned.

On the Wednesday program of January 18 Warner filled five trots but at various times during seasons past  as many as eight of nine trotting races were offered.

Arguably, at least  by race condition, the best of the five trots was  won by Chip and Run,a $20,000 claimer who was making his first seasonal start after bankrolling $49,385 last year on the stretch of  six wins, the fastest in 1:58 at Saratoga.

On the January 18^th program Chip And Run was sent off as the betting favorite in the race and driver Stephane Bouchard got the job done.  Interfered with during the first quarter mile Chip And Run had to make up 10 lengths and Bouchard did it slowly and at the top of the lane the altered son of Chip Chip Hooray was fourth on the outside and then rallied to a neck victory in 2:04.2 over Perfect Picture and Larry Stalbaum who won this race last week in 2:00.2.

Chip And Run  rallied to victory in the trotting feature for Stephane Bouchard (Geri Schwarz Photo)

Chip And Run  is now owned by William Damberg of Kerhonkson, NY and trained by Bob Lounsbury.

Stallbaum did however,  get revenge of sorts when he won two other trotting contests later on the card.

Perfect Scam was an easy winner for Stallbaum (Geri Schwarz Photo)

He won the co-feature with Perfect Scam by six lengths over former Mighty M Trotter of the Year, Konchie  in a 2:01.4 clocking on the extremely windy and cold afternoon. It marked the  second consecutive triumph for the  Eric Prevost-owned  trotter after having won  last week in a time of 2:00



Gotta Be Perfect remained a perfect two for two this year with his 2:04.4 victory for Larry Stallbaum (Geri Schwarz Photo)



Stallbaum is  the proud owner of Gotta Be Perfect  whom he got home first in a 2:03.4 clocking in the 12^th race on the Wednesday card. After leading the entire way Gotta Be Perfect held on for a neck  victory over Sweet Lucifer  driven by Drew Campbell. Gotta Be Perfect has been perfect in five of his last seven starts and now has two wins in-a-row as the 2012 season unfolds.