George Napolitano Jr. has 10-win day Wednesday

HARRISBURG PA — George Napolitano Jr., fresh off 100 sulky victories in July and 105 in August, yesterday put together a 10-bagger of visits to Victory Lane between the two racetracks at which he campaigns, Harrah's Philadelphia and The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

 

The 2010 North American dashwinning champion, and the leading driver at both tracks this season, Napolitano won 6 of 11 races on Philly's afternoon card to start the day, for five different trainers — Gil Garcia-Herrera, Philly's top trainer and a frequent user of "George Nap's" sulky services, had two wins with Napolitano.

 

After winning race 11 George left Philly for the two-hour drive north to Pocono, where after missing the first race and not having a drive in another, he achieved his fourth win of the night at the mountain oval in the ninth race (all for different trainers, to boot), putting him at double digits, and who knew what could happen with five races to go? But alas, "GNap" could only manage a second and a third on the balance of the PcD card (if you can associate the word "only" with a one-day sulky tally of 23-10-4-1-.546).

 

This marks the third straight month that Napolitano has won ten races in one day — July 26 (three Philly, seven Pocono), August 16 (seven Philly, three Pocono), and then yesterday, exactly one month later (six Philly, four Pocono).

 

No official tally has been kept on records for driving wins in one day. Bruce Ranger won 13 heats on a non-betting card for Florida-breds at Pompano in 2009, the highest documented total. Mike Lachance won 12 (7 day, 5 night) during a Yonkers doubleheader in 1987, and Stephane Bouchard split a dozen between one day's action at Freehold (3) and Yonkers (9) in 2003. Four drivers have won 11 races on a single card in the single-heat era, including Nap at Pocono in 2011. Any further yields from research would be appreciated if reported, and passed along.

 

It was not thought that George would reach a third straight 100-win month, as Pocono dropped Sunday racing at the end of August, reducing its basic schedule to four cards a week, and last week it took a "dark week" for an early Oktoberfest celebration. But with the 10-win day coming one day into the second half of September, Nap now has 44 September victories, 29 at Philly and 15 at Pocono, so who knows (especially with some Grand Circuit drivers having Delaware and Lexington on their calendars)? He has raised himself to third in the North American standings with 551 wins in 2015, behind the epic duelers from last year, Aaron Merriman (598) and Ron Wrenn Jr. (577).