Paul
“the Coach” Minore and Bob “the Headhunter” Hechkoff made it two victories in a
row in amateur contests when each won a division of the CKG Billings trot at
the Meadowlands on Friday night, July 17 after the former won a NAADA trot and the latter a Billings event both at
Monticello Raceway the previous day.
Coach
Minore was victorious at the Big M with Hallanet in a time of 1:57.3 while
Hechkoff romped to a 1:54.4 triumph in a Billings split with Keystone Thomas.
And both drivers made a quarter pole move to the lead after the first few
furlongs and then each cruised on to open lengths victories. Minore’s trotter
was three lengths ahead of “Mighty Matt” Zuccarello’s Gray N Cloudy while
Hechkoff guided his charge to an easy six length victory over Current Crisis
driven by Dein “the Jupiter Gem” Spriggs.
In
his contest Minore and Hallanet left from the pole position and parked
Zuccarello and Gray N Cloudy by the quarter in :28.1 and thenMinore retook
command and Hallanet raced relatively unchallenged the rest of the mile. They
had a comfortable four length lead as
the field headed for home and at the wire Hallanet was a 3-1/4 length victor
over Gray N Cloudy. Pixel Queen finished third for “Joltin Joe” Pennacchio.
Hallanet
is owned by his driver and trained by Taylor Gower. Sent off at odds of over
13-1 he paid $28.20 for win.
Hechkoff’s
Keystone Thomas went a whale of a race
after he left hard from the 10-hole and
followed “Yankee Joe” Lee and
Dream Rocker’s cover on the limb as Dave “Linemaster” Ehrenberg and Fuel Cell
parked both trotters to a :27:2 first quarter.
After
Lee cleared with Dream Rocker Hechkoff gained command with Keystone Thomas and
the ball game was nearly over as the veteran trotter passed the half in :56.1
and then went on to a oh-so-easy six length triumph over Current Crisis. Dream
Rocker held on for the show dough.
It
was two-wins-in-a-row for Keystone Thomas after “the Headhunter” drove him to a
1:55.4 victory in his last start in the GSY Series also at the Big M in early
July.
Keystone
Thomas, owned by Hechkofff’s R.B.H.
Ventures and Kyle Spagnola and the latter doubles as the horse’s trainer. He
paid $8.80 for win.
Amazingly,
or maybe not so amazing, is the fact the overwhelming majority of the 20
trotters slated to start in the Billings Series at the Meadowlands on Friday
are all owned by their amateur drivers.
