There is little doubt that the Sears Family is proud of
their accomplishments. No, not the catalogue people…. the harness racing Sears.
And they should be, from Grandpa Gene, to father Jay to son Brian,
all exceptional horsemen and talented drivers.
At Monticello Raceway on the rainy afternoon of August
28 local railbirds found that the name Jay Sears was listed to drive in
the eighth race.
“I’m not sure who he is but maybe he’s related to Brian
Sears,” one fan answered where queried about Jay Sears.
Jay Sears, Brian’s dad, has recorded over 1500 career
winners and has been driving sparingly over the past few decades
while being involved in the horseman’s organization at Pompano Park in Florida.
On Thursday Sears shipped his winless Allamerican Native
sophomore pacing gelding, Gallagher, some 90 miles from Pocono Downs to
Monticello Raceway looking to give his youngster a shot at an easier
field of horses.
And it worked out just as Sears hoped it would.
Rated 4-1 from the eight hole and sporting fast times
while chasing winners at the Plains, Pa. five-eighth mile oval, finally after
15 previous starts Gallagher now sports a race record of 2:02,
albeit hampered by being earned over the muddy racecourse.
Still that didn’t seem to bother Jay. He sounded happy when
contacted by phone in the race paddock after his triumph.
Pleasantries were exchanged and Jay was welcomed back to the
Mighty M and asked “what the heck are you doing here?”
Sears hasn’t driven a horse at Monticello Raceway in decades,
maybe longer.
“I won my first race here some 50 years ago and I’m not sure
if this will be my last winner but if it is it’ll also be at Monticello,”
Sears said.
Asked why he shipped his colt here to the Mighty M he added:
“Oh, I wanted to give my guy (Gallagher) a little easier competition. I haven’t
driven him much at all since he first started racing this year but I figured if
the top guys could lose with him, then so could I.”
But losing wasn’t in the cards for Gallagher or Sears
on Wednesday afternoon
Despite starting on the far outside Sears got his pacer away
extremely slow and was in seventh place some 18 lengths off the
lead at the quarter.
At the three- eighths pole Sears moved his pacer to the
outside and began grinding forward and at the head of the lane Gallagher was in
fourth place still some two lengths off the leader. But with modest urging from
Sears Gallagher got up in the final strides to collar Zeke Parker and Forty
Thieves and finally break his maiden.
Sent off at odds of 7-2 Gallagher paid $9.60 for win.
The pacer is also owned by Sears.
Longtime horsemen and maybe even some eternal fans may
remember Sears’ dad Gene, who was reputed to be the only one to get along with
the onerous but extremely fast pacer Red Sails, back in the early 1950’s. Gene
Sears was a consummate horsemen and outstanding Grand Circuit race driver
skills he no doubt passed on to his progeny.
