Northfield beats Pompano in Driver’s Challenge

Northfield, OH — The Northfield/Pompano Driver’s Challenge concluded on Wednesday (April 12) at MGM Northfield Park, with the home team easing away to victory after another successful night in the harness racing competition.

While Team Pompano scored five victories on Wednesday, it was too much to overcome as Team Northfield Prevailed 248-170.

“It was a great challenge, but we had to defend our house,” said Northfield team captain Aaron Merriman.

Chris Lems was one of the hometown team’s top earners, earning two victories throughout the challenge races with Over Six and Favorite Aunt.

Captain Aaron Merriman had a consistent evening after not winning a race on Tuesday night, scoring his first victory of the competition with Tom Hall trainee Mickey in the fourth race of the evening.

David Miller led all eight drivers in trips to the winners’ circle throughout the competition with four victories. On Wednesday, he used some of the same tactics he did on Tuesday, winning in come-from-behind fashion with longshot Bettor’s Choice in 1:55.4. He would win four races later with favorite Vague Traces.

While Team Northfield pulled off the victory, both teams scored eight wins over both nights of the competition.

Below are the final two-day totals of each driver:

Team Pompano
Joseph Chindano Jr. – 37 Points
Wally Hennessey – 44 Points
David Miller – 56 Points
John MacDonald – 33 Points

Team Northfield
Ronnie Wrenn Jr. – 76 Points
Chris Lems – 49 Points
Aaron Merriman – 66 Points
Billy Davis Jr. – 57 Points

Both teams represented respective charities that took home prize money following the competition. Representing Team Pompano was the Standardbred Transition Alliance, who took home $1,000, while the Cleveland American Cancer Society represented by MGM Northfield Park took home $2,000.

Pompano team captain Wally Hennessey was thrilled with the competition and expressed interest in doing it again. “We’d love to get together again with these guys in another competition.”

Director of Racing Dave Bianconi expressed his gratitude for the competition, “it was a fun competition and a great way to shake off the winter.” “We’d especially like to thank Gabe Prewitt for thinking of the idea and coming up to fill in as our interim announcer for the past few months.”

“We had an absolute blast over the last couple of days and were proud to represent Pompano again for a great cause,” said Prewitt. “Thanks so much to the staff and horsemen at MGM for supporting the challenge; I hope we get to do it again at some point.”

Live racing resumes on Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. with a carryover in the Pick-5 of $5,964 and will feature a $30,000 estimated pool.

For complete race results, click here.

by Michael Carter, for MGM Northfield Park