Jimmy Taggart, Jr. drove five more winners on Thursday (June
18) at Monticello Raceway after reining four here yesterday. On Wednesday
four of Taggart’s wins came from the Gary Messenger barn and today (Thursday)
three more were harnessed by Messenger.
Now with 94 driving victories Taggart is fourth in races won
on the local leaderboard but no one is currently as hot as he is.
Taggart began the day with a 2:01.4 front- end victory with
Blameless, a 3 year-old Crazed gelding owned by Dr. Scott Woogen and Brenda
Messenger. The good looking trotter from the Gary Messenger barn notched his
second lifetime victory and paid $2.30 for win.
Then beginning in the fifth race Taggart went on a tear with
three consecutive victories two of which were trained by Messenger.
In the fifth Taggart guided Brenda Messenger’s
sophomore trotting colt Enzo Pezza to the 2:02.2 come-from behind score
and returned a $13.20 win mutuel.
Taggart then won the sixth race with Bob Petitto’s veteran
trotter Stay All Day ($5.40) in a time of 2:02.1 and then scored his third
victory for Gary Messenger when he guided Putnam’s Art home first in
1:57.1. Sent off the favorite in the race, the pacer, a 6
year old Southwind Balsam gelding owned by Brenda Messenger and Dr. Scott
Woogen, paid $4.90 for win.
Win number five on the card came in the 10th and
final race when Taggart sat the pocket and rallied down the passing lane to
score a 1:57.3 victory with the Dennis Laterza owned and trained, Lola’s
Cruiser. It was the 6 year old Yankee Cruiser gelding ‘s first win in 15
seasonal starts and he paid $6.60 for win.
“I’ve had a real good couple of days Taggart admitted.
“Gary’s (Messenger) youngsters are rounding into form and everything seems to
be going my way now. I’ve been putting my horses in the right place and
thankfully they’re been responding.”
