Owned by Ryan Macedonio and trained by Greg Decker, Jr. the
4-year –old Sir Luck gelding made it two-in-a-row with Merton at the
controls although they had to hold off a fast charging Duncan’s Western
(Mike Forte) to hold on for a neck victory to return a $3.10 win payoff.
It was the only victory that Merton produced in 10
drives. “I didn’t have much power today and I had a few seconds and
thirds but no other winners,” Merton acknowledged. “They tell me as I get
closer to 2000 I’ll feel pressure but as on now I don’t have any, at least none
that I’m aware of.”
Although Mike Merton didn’t have multiple victories on the
Tuesday card, younger brother Greg did. In fact the former two-time
Mighty M driving champ scored another hat trick, his seventh in the last
nine programs. The ones Greg didn’t have three winners on he had two, as he
continues his tear toward the top of the local leaderboard.
Greg won with Top Flight ($13.80) in 1:57.1; Wilson Jay N
($5.10) in 1:59.1 and Art Maker ($6.90) in 1:59.3, the final two triumphs came
from the Pete Pellegrino barn.
The Merton-Pellegrino combination have produced multiple
winners nearly every time Pellegrino sends out two or more horses
from his 35-horse stable, all of which are stabled at a local training
farm.
Pellegrino is having another big year and for the second
consecutive season he left Florida as the leading trainer at Pompano Park. Last
year the affable trainer harnessed 103 winners and he already has 69 this year.
“I’m only racing a small part (of my stable) here at
Monticello. Some of my better horses are racing at Yonkers ,the Meadowlands and
Pocono Downs mainly because there are no classes for them at Monticello. I wish
I had the same percentages there as I do here,” Pellegrino said with a smile.
Thus far at the Mighty M Pellegrino’s horses have started 60
times with 27 wins, 8 seconds and three thirds for a training
average of .569.
