There is no denying that Bruce Aldrich Jr. has arrived. He’s
had a great season and is third in races won in North America with 632, and on
Friday afternoon over a muddy racetrack at Monticello Raceway, Aldrich put the
icing on the cake when he reined eight winners on the card. His output left him
one short of Billy “Zeke” Parker’s nine wins which the bearded wonder had on
October 22, 1996.
“I had a shot at the record, I really did,” Aldrich
confided. “I thought I’d win with Pena’s trotter (Michael’s Wild Boy) in the
fourth but he jumped it off.”
One has to know Aldrich to understand his humility as to
highlight a shortcoming in a thoroughly magnificent day instead of blowing his
own horn.
Eight wins at on one card at the Mighty M is the second best
production by a driver on a single card here since the track was established in
1958.
Aldrich began his assault by winning the first three races
on the Friday program. After finishing off the board with Michael’s Wild
Boy in the fourth he then just missed by a head in the fifth when he
finished second behind his brother-in-law Jimmy Devaux.
But Aldrich was back on track in the sixth surviving a tight
photo for win number four.
He proceeded to win the eighth with a hot favorite from the
Bob Lounsbury barn, one of four winners he drove today for the meet’s top
trainer.
Aldrich then copped the 10th and 11th
races and capped his greatest day in the sulky by winning the 13th
and final race.
After he stopped accentuating what went wrong he came back
to his senses after some urging he then proudly spoke of the
afternoon’s production.
“I had won seven here earlier this year but the eight wins
today is my all-time best,” he said from his cell phone while en route back
home to Saratoga Springs.“I guess you could say that it was a pretty good day.
“ Tomorrow I’ll have more time to reflect about this
day and maybe I’ll appreciate what I accomplished all the more. Now I
have two consecutive days off, something I hadn’t all season long. I’m
certainly going to enjoy them.”
