AHDC Trot to Calabrese and Verruso

FREEHOLD, N.J.— Both harness racing amateur driver John Calabrese and Anthony Verruso planted themselves on the point and claimed victory in their respective $9,000 divisions of the American Harness Drivers Club (AHDC) Trot at Freehold Raceway on Saturday afternoon (May 6).

In the first division, Calabrese settled in second with Blogmaster (Glidemaster) to a :29 first quarter before circling his charge to the fore before the :59.4 half. Call Me Thefireman (driven by Anthony Verruso) yielded for the pocket while Vendor Bill (Maria De Bruijn) blitzed first over and pressed the tempo-setter through to three-quarters in 1:29.2.

Blogmaster’s inside advantage stretched his lead a tad upon spinning for home and he needed every inch of that cushion to keep Vendor Bill at bay and win by a nose in 1:59.3. King Cast (Yogi Sheridan) followed cover to finish third and Call Me Thefireman took fourth.

Bill MacKenzie trains Blogmaster, a five-year-old gelding, and co-owns with Donald Witkowski and Vincent Ali Jr. He paid $3.20 to win.

BLOGMASTER REPLAY

Anthony Verruso fired Winneress (Credit Winner) from the pylons in the second division and never looked back. Verruso soared through a clip of :29.1, :59 and 1:29.1 while enduring first-over pressure from Brownie (Jacob Stillwell), who eventually caved from the fatigue of a wide trip and broke stride to the final turn.

Parody (Joe Lee), the 2-1 favorite, charged off his pylon trip to take late aim for the lead but settled for second, beaten a half a length, with Shoemaker Hanover (John Calabrese) storming wide for third and pocket-sitter Trump This (Kubi Erzene) settling for fourth.

Symon Spicer trains Winneress, a nine-year-old gelding, for owner Anthony Verruso. The gelding paid $12 to win.

WINNERESS REPLAY

AHDC action continues at Freehold Raceway on Friday (May 12) with a division for the AHDC Pace. First-race post time at Freehold is 12:30 p.m. (EDT).

For complete race results, click here.

by Ray Cotolo, for the AHDC