The Sunday night Harness Racing card at Running Aces featured a milestone of sorts for one of the sport's toughest campaigners.
In the featured trot on the program, 11 year old gelding Franky Provolone (Armbro Scribe – Simply Royal) added another notch to his well-traveled racing belt.
The veteran campaigner picked up his 53rd lifetime win, and secured his 180th career top-3 finish in 276 trips to the starting gate.
He did so in front-running fashion with driver Mooney Svendsen in the sulky, holding off all challengers in 1:58.2. Franky Provolone has been a regular campaigner here at Running Aces for several years, and has been a fan favorite both here, and at Cal-Expo in California, where he races during the fall and winter months, and where he is close to his owner Robin Clements, who makes her home base in Wilton. Franky is currently trained by Denise Maier. Tonight, he was sent off as the 9-5 favorite, and returned $5.60 to his faithful pari-mutuel players.
Also on the Sunday program, 3 year old trotters were featured for the $8,800 sophomore open, and Scramble Camp ($3.20) was extremely sharp in that contest, with a gate-to-wire victory from the outside 6 post in a lifetime best mile of 1:59. Scramble Camp is by Weight Lifter and out of the Conway Hall mare Hall of Beauty. The sharp-looking gelding has now won 8 of 16 lifetime races and $27,184 for Owners Daniel & Jeralene Roland and Robert K. Davis. Mooney Svendsen also piloted this winner for trainer Daniel Roland.
Driver Steve Wiseman led all drivers on Sunday with a Hat-Trick, while Mooney Svendsen picked up a double tonight and those two drivers are now tied with 5 wins each through the first 2 nights of racing.
The .20 Jackpot Pick 5 was hit and returned $1,099.80 to a single winner, while the $5,000 guaranteed late .50 cent Pick 4 returned a very healthy $3,850.00. The .50 cent Hi-5 wager has a carryover of $1,210.78 going into the next card of racing on Tuesday night, May 22, with first post at 7:00 pm CDT.
By Darin Gagne, Running Aces Track Announcer