In a race that seemed to make every amateur driver proud,
even those who didn’t drive in it, the well contested and near triple dead-heat
in the $12,000 C.K.G Billings Series Eastern Region Summer Final at Yonkers
Raceway on Thursday, July 25 was a stunner.
Robert “Rapid Rail” Krivelin got his 4-year-old trotting
gelding Current Crisis up in the final strides to collar pacesetter
Thehouseisrockin and Bob “the Headhunter” Hechkoff by a scant nose in a time of
2:02. And just a short nose back in third place was Steve” You’re Never Too”
Oldford with Oliver Kiss.
Not only were the top three trotters close at the finish but
the next three; the fourth, fifth and sixth place finishers were just 1-1/2
lengths behind the top three. It was a proverbial blanket finish.
Krivelin, who’s off to another great start this year
after garnering last year’s National Amateur Driver of the Year honors, notched
his second consecutive Billings triumph with Current Crisis having won last
Friday at the Meadowlands in a 1:57.4 clocking.
On Thursday after Hechkoff made the front with
Thehouseisrockin, Steve “You’re Never Too” Oldford, who was in fourth
position along the pylons in the early going made a quarter pole move
with Oliver Kiss and was followed closely by Krivelin and Current Crisis which
helped accelerate the pedestrian 31 second first quarter.
“I knew if we let Hechkoff get his way on the front-end we’d
have been at the half in (1:0)3 and a piece,” Oldford said
explaining why he moved his trotter early.
That move by Oldford was just what the doctor ordered for
Krivelin as he got a second over trip behind cover as the field trotted by the
half in 1:01.4.
With Oldford and Krivelin on the limb and Hechkoff and
Harvey “Doc” Stein one- two along the pylons the pace picked up and the
foursome was by the third stanza in 1:31.3.
As they came off the final turn it was a cavalry charge to
the finish with Krivelin’s trotter prevailing by a nose on the far outside over
both Hechkoff and Oldford’s trotters.
“When I went three-wide, like I did last week at the
Meadowlands, I was just measuring it,” Krivelin said with tongue in
cheek about winning in the extremely tight finish.
Krivelin’s victory in the non-wagering Billings summer
finale on July25 was his sixth of the season and the 147th of his
amateur career.
Incidentally, Krivelin’s career earnings ($993,136)
are rapidly approaching
