“We’ve been working hard to try to get a field together for
this end-of-a-career race and we were expecting just four or
five entries,” Warner said. “Now with seven entered,and most traveling a long
distance just to compete, we thought it only right to make sure no one
goes home empty handed.
“The first five finishers in the $5,000 Au Revoir are
assured purse money and those who finish sixth and seventh will get $200
shipping money. We thank the owners and trainers for entering.”
One of the unexpected
entries was Tattler’s Jet. Earlier this week trainer Gene Miller called the
publicity department saying the old fella’s got an abscess in left front foot
and he was lame.
He said he was sorry that he won’t be coming because all
season long he’d been planning on making Tattler’s Jet’s final start in the Au
Revoir.
Asked if he could try to get the abscess out just one more
time before he finalized his decision Miller said “Well I could try
a cow manure poultice. I’m not too confident
but maybe that’ll help.”
Figuring Tattler’s Jet was a non-starter Warner
was surprised to see his entry this morning. So he contacted Miller. “I’ll be darned if that the cow
manure poultice didn’t do the trick,” Miller told Warner and he closed
their conversation with “I’ll see you next Thursday.”
Another unexpected entrant was Adam’s Rocket A who has been
competing at Freehold Raceway and just yesterday Warner heard from Ken
Sumner who said he was going to enter his
Whitlock N.
Two other pacers who entered are Alba Gold and Hero’s
Cavalcade. The former is the last racing off-spring of the great racehorse and
outstanding stallion Albatross while the latter has been racing here at the
Mighty M for months.
Since the NYS Racing and Wagering Board has given their
consent two trotters, Speedy Big Ras and Crowbar Hotel, also joined the fray
much and they drew for the inside post positions. The former was beaten a ½
-length in 2:02.2 in his last start here on December 20 while the latter
was officially timed in 2:00.4 while finishing fourth in his last race at
Saratoga Raceway
“ When you get a limited amount of entries you have to go
with what you get and surprisingly it appears to be a very competitive race,”
Warner added.
The field with morning odds and drivers
lines up as follows:
1-Speedy Big Ras (t) (5/2-Kyle DiBenedetto)
2- Crowbar Hotel (t) (8-1—Bruce Aldrich Jr.)
3-Adams Rocker A (10-1—Joe Rayll)
4-Whitlock N (4-1—Kevin Switzer, Jr.)
5- Alba Gold (9-2—Billy Parker, Jr)
6- Hero’s Cavalcade (3-1—Rick Harp)
7-Tattler’s Jet (7-2—Jim Marohn Jr.)
The Au Revoir is slated as race number four on the 13-race card on December 27th. First race post time is at 12:25pm with the approximate post time for the Au Revoir at 1:30pm
