by John Manzi for the
Billings Series
Nichols,NY—The beauty
of the Billings Amateur Driving Series is that its a traveling program where
the competitors get a chance to exhibit their abilities on different size
racetracks throughout the nine month season.
Today ( July 7) the race was
over Tioga Downs' 5/8ths mile oval in New York's southern tier and
after a hard fought battle “Coach Paul” Minore and his veteran trotter, Wygant
Prince, withheld a late charge by Aventure and driver “Tough Tony” Ciuffetelli
and to score a 1:57.3 victory.
Overlooked by the attending
public Wygant Prince paid $25.40 for win.
When the six-horse field was
approaching the starting line the rail horse and even-money favorite, Fleet
Honeybee (“Yankee Joe” Lee), went off-stride and was never in contention
thereafter.
When the mobile gate sprung
Wygant Prince, racing from the two-hole, allowed (#6) Uriel and “Annie Get Your
Gun” Stoebe, to gain command in the 28-second first quarter. When all the
trotters lined up in single file Wygant Prince got to enjoy a two hole journey
until the field headed to the third stanza. As the leaders rounded the final
turn Minore kept his charge along the pylons and rallied past Uriel and braced
for the hard charging Aventure. In the deep stretch Wygant Prince and Aventure
matched stride for stride but at the finish Minore's trotter got the last call
for a head victory. Uriel finished two lengths behind the top two for third
money.
The winner, an 11-year-old
altered son of SJ's Photo, notched his sixth seasonal triumph and 37th
of his illustrious career while raising his career earnings to over $411,000.
Wygant Price is owned by his driver and trained by Taylor Gower.
