BY FRANK
DRUCKER, Publicity Director, Empire City @ Yonkers Raceway
YONKERS,
NY, Friday, August 16, 2013--George Brennan won the 8,000th race his career
Friday night, doing the honors with favored Pass the Deck ($3.50) in Yonkers
Raceway's $11,000 pacing opener (1:55.3).
Perched second-over from post position No. 4 (after a pair of inside
scratches), Brennan was widest and fastest, prevailing by three-quarters of a
length.
The 46-year-old Brennan, a native of Monticello, NY, won his first race--behind
Rob Ron Romper--at his hometown track as a high school junior back in 1982.
Since moving his base of operation to Westchester three seasons ago, Brennan
has been leading driver twice (2011–697 wins, single-season record $11.1
million in purses, 2012—580 wins, $8.8 million in purses). This season, he
resides second to Brian Sears in both categories, with 249 wins and $5.1
million in purses through Thursday evening.
“Every number is special, and I think each one defines a stable career,”
Brennan said when on the verge his latest victory lap. “When I first started
driving in this (New York/New Jersey) area, I didn’t even have a thousand wins.
I reached that number at Freehold, so I’ve won nearly all of my races competing
against the sport’s elite drivers.
“I think that says something.”
Brennan, with nearly $134 million in purses, has reached seven figures in that
category ($10-, $14- and $12 million) in each of the last three seasons.
Among his career highlights are wins in the 2006 Yonkers Trot with Glidemaster
(subbing for an injured John Campbell and completing that colt’s Triple Crown),
2011's final of the George Morton Levy Memorial Pacing Series (Real Nice), that
season's Hambletonian/Hambo Oaks (Broad Bahn and Bold and Fresh) and this
season's Art Rooney Pace (Doctor Butch).
A quick word about Brennan's
"date"...Pass the Deck, a 13-year-old son of David’s Pass, recorded
his 46th career win in his 340th lifetime start. His best
season was his initial one, with the 2002 Lawrence B. Sheppard Pace ($66,500)
here highlighting a $131,000-plus 2-year-old season.
