After the best year of his career where his 645 driving
victories were tied for second best in North America, Bruce Aldrich, Jr.
continues to be a force in the sulky.
At Monticello Raceway on Wednesday (Feb.26) he reined four
winners on the 10- race card to bring his track leading amount to 55 during the
winter season here which has seen many race dates cancelled due to
inclement weather.
In spite of the fact that he has been consistently
hot-handed, one of Aldrich’s victories, Real Motivation (2:00.4) in the ninth
race, paid $77.00, $84.20 and $15.20 across the board.
That day he also reined the won the fourth race with Thunder
Seelster ($2.90) in 1:59.2 and the sixth with Sir Dutch ($7.20) in 1:59.4.
Aldrich’s other victory came behind Working Stiffs where he did a masterful job
after spotting the field some 12 lengths at the quarter then usung an overland
route from the half to get in contention. But when he wheeled her three-deep on
the final turn the mare bobbled but Aldrich got her back on stride and
she zoomed by the leaders in the deep stretch to score a 2:00.4 triumph.
“The weather has been real tough this winter and we
lost a lot of days but still my 55 wins puts me in the top 15 this year( in
races won). But now that Saratoga is getting ready to open I believe my win
totals will increase since I will again be driving there and at Monticello,”
Aldrich said.
On Wednesday he was in Saratoga to drive qualifying races
there and afterward he planned to head to Monticello to drive several horses on
the afternoon betting card but he got buttonholed when he had to be
scratched off many of his mounts due to unusual traffic on the highways to the
Mighty M.
“Qualifiers finished late at Saratoga that day and besides
getting a late start, traffic was terrible. Sometimes best made plans go awry,”
he reasoned.
Also on the Mighty M Wednesday card the veteran
trotter V I P won his fifth race of the fledling season when Jason
Ryan guided him to a 2:01.3 victory which ties the trotter with five others for
most trotting victories thus far this year.
And V I P surely knows how to rack-up wins. Last year the
8 year old altered son of Muscles Yankee won 17 races.
