Lee grabs NAADA Trot win

MONTICELLO, N.Y.— Joe Lee came out on top of a heated harness racing battle to win with 2-5 favorite Woodside Genius (Dover Dan) in the $7,500 North American Amateur Drivers Association (NAADA) Trot at Monticello Raceway on Wednesday (May 21).

Leaving from post 3, Lee pushed forward with Woodside Genius but yielded control past a :29 first quarter to Draco S (Victoria Stratton).

He stayed in the pocket to a :58.4 half and moved to attack up the backstretch. Woodside Genius and Draco S hooked into battle marching to three-quarters in 1:28.3 and remained embroiled through the final turn and into the stretch. Lee managed to surge to the front in the lock-step battle at the right time and won by a nose in a 1:59.4 mile while Draco S settled for second, Psalmsfortysixfive (Scott Keppler) swarmed forward late for third and All Rise (Tony Beltrami) took fourth.

Gary Messenger trains Woodside Genius, a 5-year-old gelding by Dover Dan, for owners Brenda Messenger and Scott Woogen. He paid $2.80 to win.

WOODSIDE GENIUS REPLAY

With the 10 preliminaries in the books, the NAADA Spring Fling Series will go to final at Yonkers Raceway on Thursday, June 5. A consolation is slated for the week after at Monticello Raceway on Wednesday, June 11. First-race post time at Yonkers is 6:45 p.m. (EDT).

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by Ray Cotolo, for the NAADA