Bruce Aldrich Jr. has found out that winning a lot of races
is harder than he realized. The 42 year old tail-setter has been doing double
duty this year and scoring plenty of driving victories. But it comes with a
price.
“I started the winter season at Monticello Raceway and
when Saratoga Raceway opened in the spring I thought I’d give it a try to drive
at both tracks even though many of the race cards are on similar days and the
tracks are over 175 miles apart,” Aldrich said.
“At first the trips back and forth weren’t too bad, and they
still aren’t, but the constant repetition of the traveling wears you out.”
At the Mighty M on Tuesday, August 27th Aldrich
added three more victories to his seasonal totals and now , with 382, he ranks
sixth best in North America.
“I’m lucky t be able to drive for top trainers at both
tracks,” Aldrich added. “I do most of the driving for Jose Godinez at
Saratoga and for Bob Lounsbury at Monticello. Both trainers send out horses
that are usually in top form.”
At last count at Saratoga, Godinez is third in
the trainers standings with 51 winners while at Monticello Lounsbury is
second in races won with 113. Aldrich, on the other hand, is second in
driving victories at Saratoga with 127 and tops all other reinsmen at the
Mighty M with 255 winners.
Two of Aldrich’s winners on Tuesday came from the
Lounsbury barn. One was a 1:54.3 triumph with Philip Schultz’s Machin Music and
the other , a 1:55.2 victory with Moo Co Inc and Jonathan Klee Racing’s,
Thunder Seelster.
“If you think racing isn’t tough these days just check
out my victory with Machin Music. “We won in 1:55.2 in a $4000 claiming
pace and we had to go every bit of that to win by neck over
Lockettejasper,” Aldrich said incredulously.“ $4000 claimers are the bottom
of the barrel and still it took a 1:55.2 mile to take home the bacon.”
A third Aldrich victory was with Alexpanderthegreat in
1:57.2 for trainer Peter Pellegrino.
Quietly and without much fanfare former Mighty M leading
driver Jimmy Devaux is also racing at both Monticello and Saratoga
and he endures the traveling just like Aldrich.
Yesterday (August 27) Devaux won a race at the Mighty
M and two at Saratoga. At the Spa City oval Devaux’s 88 wins are sixth best and
at Monticello his 135 winners are fourth best on the local leaderboard. And his
234 driving victories this year currently ranks him 26th best in
North America.
And the Zeke Parker watch continues.
The bearded wonder also reined three winners on the
Tuesday card and now with 11,031 winners in the bank he trails Walter Case Jr.
by just seven. When he passes Case, Parker will be the sixth winningest driver
in the history of the sport.
