Open to unstoppable Chip Chip Conway

Chip Chip Conway made short work of the Monticello Raceway harness racing Open Trot on Wednesday despite entering the first turn five-wide and battling for the lead throughout the first quarter.

Jim Taggart Jr. sent the gelding on the attack from post five and was the furthest outside of the five-horse field as they turned for the first time. Chip Chip Conway persevered, though, and powered past his rivals to take command prior to completing the opening quarter mile in :28.4.

Taggart gave his charge measured middle splits of :58.1 and 1:28.1 and allowed the horse to finish the job from there. Chip Chip Conway began to distance himself from rivals as he entered the final panel and extended his gap to five and a half lengths by the time he crossed the finish line a winner in 1:58.2.

Sweet Royalty (Kyle DiBenedetto) emerged best from a blanket finish for second; Raceace (Alan Schwartz) was third. The winner returned $3.60.

CHIP CHIP CONWAY REPLAY

Chip Chip Conway is a five-year-old Conway Hall gelding with 16 wins from 65 lifetime tries and just less than $200,000 in earnings. Gary Messenger, a resident of Monticello, trains and co-owns with Kenneth Weckstein of Ocean City.

Also on the card, McKenzie Sowers defeated amateur driving peers aboard Midnight Shark with a wire-to-wire effort in The Catskill Amateur Drivers Series Pace. Sowers sent the eight-year-old Shadyshark Hanover gelding flying off the gate and led through all panels to score in 1:57.1.

MIDNIGHT SHARK REPLAY

The horse has won 26 of his 160 career appearances and has earned just less than $180,000. He is owned by Stephen Morton of Windsor, who claimed him on Jun. 3. Bo Sowers, McKenzie’s father, trained the horse. They embraced in the winner’s circle following the junior’s eighth career victory.

Junior’s Dew set Monticello’s fastest mile time of 2021 as he won in 1:53.4 in the sixth race for Cory Stratton. The horse is a seven-year-old Western Ideal gelding with 15 wins and more than $100,000 in earnings from 113 career starts. Ashley Eldred trains for owner Marianna Monaco, a Poughquag resident.

Monticello Raceway will finish its raceweek on Thursday, Jun. 10 with nine races beginning at 12:10 p.m. EDT.

For full race results, click here.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink