On the warm and balmy fall afternoon of October 2 Monticello
Raceway presented its ninth edition of the Munich Mile, the sixth leg of
the tracks year long Heritage Drivers Series. The race was for drivers of
German descent and was enhanced this year by the presence of four
native German drivers.
“They are here as guests of the North American Amateur
Drivers Association to compete against NAADA drivers at three different racetracks
so we postponed our Munich Mile to coincide with their arrival in order to have
native Germans in our race,” explained Eric Warner the tracks director of
racing. “ We were pleased to have them participate and they were glad to be
able to drive in this race.”
When the gate sprung Chuck Poynton sent front-running Tommy
Ray CMJ to the lead and Mike Merton commandeered the two hole with Snap Out Of
It and he stayed covered while Germans Martina Bredlau and Peter
latzer got plenty of Catskill air while on the limb with their pacers,
Spectacular Man and Keltic Dragon, respectively.
Poynton and Tommy Ray CMJ took the field all the way
to the top of the lane which was ideal for Merton. When the trailing horses
swarmed in on Poynton’s pacer Merton took the unblocked short route up the
passing lane to score a two-length victory with favored Snap Out Of It in
a 1:58.2 clocking.
Sammy Savannah and German driver Andreas Schwarz
rallied to be second and the held off Pat Beeler with Foomanchu who ended
up third. Tommy Ray CMJ faded and finished fourth.
“It worked out great for me,” Merton said after his
victory.”I had a perfect trip behind the leader and he carried me all the
way to the top of the stretch and when the passing lane opened headed for
home unrestricted.”
Owned by Paul Felsher and trained by Bill Kapinos, Snap Out
Of It scored his fifth seasonal victory and returned a $4.10 win mutuel.
