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Drivers double up at Running Aces
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Wednesday, 18 June 2008
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Columbus, Minn. —
Only four drivers won races on the eight-race Sunday matinee program at Running Aces Harness Park, each of them notching a driving double before a huge Father’s Day throng of newfound fans at Minnesota’s new harness racing/cardroom casino complex.
While John DeLong, Adam Hauser and Evan Coblentz have doubled on countless occasions, it was the first such successful afternoon for Renaldo (Ron) Morales III, a 24-year-old provisional driver who moved his tack from Pompano Park in Florida in April to kick-start his driving career during the inaugural season at Running Aces.
Morales captured both the Class A and Class B trotting events when he steered Final Scorpion to a 1:58.4 Class A triumph for owner-trainer Duane Miller, who had returned to Ohio for a visit over the weekend; and also guided his own recently-purchased Strikemout to a 2:00.4 win. It is likely the two winners will square off against one another when the top trotters on the grounds line up again this Sunday, June 22.
DeLong, the 19-year-old leading driver at the meet, managed back-to-back victories with Mysparklindiamond, who won for the second time in less than a week against the best Minnesota-sired pacers; and Shabra, who broke her maiden in a $2400 race for green trotters.
Coblentz also scored a cross-gaited two-bagger, both with horses he also owns and trains. His pacer Falcon Flight won the C-3 program opener; then he guided his Two B American to the winner’s circle in a Class C trot two races later.
Hauser’s winning pair were Country Diablo, in the Minnesota-sired B race; and Whata Terror in the Class C-3 finale.
Friday night
The old gray mare not only was what she used to be, but she was better than ever Friday night at Running Aces.
Ima Looker, a gray eight-year-old daughter of Admirals Galley, lowered her lifetime record by well over two seconds besting the Class A fillies and mares in 1:56.1.
The clocking for Minneapolis resident Ted Nowatzki’s stable stalwart was the quickest by a distaff pacer during the first nine weeks of the track’s inaugural season, which still has three weeks to go.
Driver Rick Magee settled Ima Looker into the pocket through fractions of :26.2, :56.4 and 1:25.4 and then found room in deep stretch to sneak through a wall of contenders to nip Mellowroad (John DeLong) and Valentine Hotspur (J.D. Perrin) by a half-length. A total of five mares in the eight-horse field finished within a fifth of a second of one another in the thrilling blanket finish.
Ima Looker was the sixth different winner during the meet in the highly competitive weekly Class A event for the best mares racing in Minnesota.
Veteran driver Craig Banks managed a driving double on the same program, noteworthy because they were the first two wins for the likeable Minnesotan since returning to action after a horrific racing accident during the second night of racing at Running Aces on April 12 (he suffered a fractured pelvis).
Banks won a division of the Debutante Series for maiden female pacers with Moveovermack, then returned to the winner’s circle later in the evening with AJR Cambuchet, a first leg winner in the Queen of Columbus series for more seasoned fillies and mares.
Both winners are from the Lilly Racing Stable of Downers Grove, Illinois, owned by Sam Lilly, who publishes the Standardbred & Harness News magazine.
Running Aces Harness Park has received approval from the Minnesota Racing Commission to race on Wednesday, June 18 and June 25, 2008. These dates will replace Monday, June 16 and June 23.
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