The 10 year old Malabar Man gelding won by two
lengths in a very creditable time of 1:59.2 over a trio of
trotters who hit the wire nearly simultaneously . When the judges printed
the photo,the betting favorite For Goodness Lindy and driver Paul Minore were
second best while Whatnblazes and Dave Offenberg finished third.
Jjust a whisker behind those two in fourth place was
Nowerland Nathan and Dave Yarock.
“He is a very classy old horse,” Rathbone said of
Killer Whale. “He has won over $300,000 and was an open trotter when he was
younger. He had an injury a few years ago and has been raced sparingly since
then.
“This was his fourth start of the year and for the previous
three weeks he’s been raced out of a hole but he didn’t finish well. He
(Killer Whale) warmed up real good today so I suggested
we try him on the front-end.
“ When I sent him out of there we grabbed the lead
immediately and although he trotted fast early fractions (:28.1 and :58)
that didn’t seem to hurt him. When we turned for home he was still
strong and we won it easily.”
Killer Whale is owned and trained by Michael Reynolds. He
paid $16.00; $6.40 and $4.20 across the board.
It was the first season victory for Killer Whale and the
also the first win (from two starts) for driver Brad Rathbone.
The final preliminary leg of the NAADA Charity Trotting
Series will be on Saturday, May 11 again at Freehold Raceway.
The $14,000 NAADA Final will be raced at Yonkers Raceway on
Thursday, May 23.
According to NAADA president Joe Faraldo, after the
completion of the trotting series the amateur drivers organization will again
make a sizable donation to a worthwhile charity.
