MANALAPAN,
NJ – December 12, 2015 – It was all in the family when Vincent Ginsburg
captured top driver honors and Vincent Fusco Jr. was the leading trainer when
the 109-date Freehold Raceway meet concluded on Saturday, December 12, 2015.
Ginsburg
is the nephew of Fusco
In
the driver standings, Ginsburg posted 154 wins from 875 starters for earnings
of $573,914. Finishing second was Eric Abbatiello with 148 wins and
$586,070 while Stephen Smith topped earnings with $632,072, with 133 wins for
third place. Rounding out the Top 5 are James Marshall III with 123 wins
and Joseph Bongiorno with 78.
Fusco
led the way in the trainer standings with 72 wins and $223,271 in
earnings. The Top 5 also included Nick Surick with 49 wins, John Urbanski
with 40, Kelvin Harrison with 26 and Robert Bongiorno with 25.
The
2016 meet opens on Friday, January 1, with qualifiers in the morning at 9:30
a.m. and the first pari-mutuel race at 12:30 p.m.
Entries
for the opening day card will close at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, December 29, 2015
while the box for qualifiers will close at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 31,
2015.
"I
am looking forward to the 2016 racing season,” said Freehold’s Director of Racing
and Racing Secretary Karen Fagliarone. “We have the Standardbred
Development Fund for two year olds scheduled in the fall next year, and I am
optimistic that we will offer fuller fields. Our stake schedule also
includes the New Jersey Sire Stakes - Green Acres, the Dexter Cup, the Lady
Suffolk, the Charles and Helen Smith Trots, the Lou Babic Paces, the Harold and
Marion Dancer Trots, and a late closer which will be scheduled sometime in
September. The Open Space Pace is scheduled for Saturday, September 17,
2016.”
Live
racing will take place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays plus three Mondays:
January 18, February 15 and September 5.
“Our
draw schedule will remain the same with the exception of Martin Luther King
Day,” Fagliarone said. “We are hopeful that we can get together a
race to honor Martin Luther King Day. I have reached out to Montrell and
George Teague, and they have both expressed interest. The race will be
held the prior week, though, to accommodate their schedule.”
