Merton’s first win came in race three when he reined
Castellani Racing Stables’ Unending Love to a 2:00.3 victory. He then reined
Baron Racing Stables’ Mr. Sock to the pacer’s third win in a row this time in a
1:58.4 clocking.
However, there was a hat trick produced that afternoon
but it belonged to Zeke Parker. Now getting the amount of catch-drives he
was getting prior to his prostate cancer surgery, the 15-time Monticello
Raceway driving champion will be a factor and one who’ll have to be
contended with for top honors as the days go by.
Zeke’s triumphs came with John Stubits’ S F Exposed
(1:59.2); Dr. Scott Woogen’s, trotter Strength’s Victory (2:00.2) and
with Ribikoff and Sorentino’s trotter, Our Special Girl (2:03).
However, the winner of the daily trotting feature,
Imallottocatch, was driven by Mike Forte. The 11-year old gelding who has
gotten better with age made every pole a winning one en route to a 2:00.2
victory over Income De Vie and driver Jimmy Marohn, Jr., who by the
way, got skunked on the Wednesday card.
Imalottocatch is owned by Janet Messenger and trained by her
dad, seven time Mighty M driving champ, John Gilmour. The winner returned a
$13.20 mutuel.
Oddly years ago, Imallottocatch raced on the same card that his daddy was competing on when Gary Messenger was handling and racing the
mid-west bred Allot here for many seasons. During that period Allot bred a few
mares while he was still racing and that a father and his son both raced on the same program
definitely a rarity in all kinds of racing.
