You may have heard the baseball song; ‘Mickey, Willie and
the Duke’‘, which was written and performed by Terry Cashman in the late 1970’s
. On Thursday night (May 22) Yonkers Raceway had a similar version
namely; ‘the Headhunter’ and ‘the Capo’.
What you might ask quizzically? For the record they
are nicknames for the drivers who won their respective $6000 C.K.G. Billings
divisions at the Hilltop oval on Thursday. Bob “the Headhunter” Hechkoff, an
executive recruiter by trade, scored a 2:00.2 trotting victory with Get Packin
while Tony “the Capo” Verruso, the president of the Billings Series, won his
split with Sam’s Honeybee in a time of 2:01.2.
Hechkoff took no prisoners and went down the road with Get
Packin and in doing so he played hardball when he kept “Coach Paul” Minore and
Wygant Prince on the limb the entire mile. Maybe that was a needed move or
maybe it wasn’t, but either way Hechkoff emerged victorious a by a length over
Wygant Prince, who went a game trip to be second. Third place went to Browner
Shuttle driven by Bobby “Rapid Rail” Krivelin.
Hechkoff, who now has 46 driving victories, owns the winner
who’s trained by Brandon Simpson.
In the other split Verruso worked out a perfect trip after
he started from the pole position with Sam’s Honeybee. He trailed along in
third position nearly the entire mile, that is, until he took aim at the
leader L F Topaz and driver “Tough Tony” Ciuffetelli at the top of the
stretch. Sam’s Honeybee then trotted by LF Topaz and held off a fast closing Mr.
Jim Dandy and driver Dave “Yes Its True” Offenberg to score a 2:01.2
victory. Catalyst took home the show dough for Mark “Wakefern” Schullstrom
while LF Topaz faded and finished fourth.
“She Sam’s Honeybee) usually doesn't leave very well
but I wanted to try and keep the hole closed so I would get the pocket trip,”
Verruso explained after his driving victory. “I considered pulling up the
backstretch going to the 3/4 pole but I saw the horse on the lead still had
something left so I was pretty sure he would carry me to the top of the lane.
Even though my horse prefers to go outside the passing lane was my only option
so I took it.”
Like many amateur Verruso owns Sam’s Honey who’s trained by
Carl Gillespie. For “the Capo” it was his second driving victory of the season
and the 50th of his amateur career.
