5,000 wins for Brennan

Although he had nine chances on the card, George Brennan wasted no time in locking up his 5,000th career win on Friday night at the Meadowlands. Brennan steered Carolina Raider to a 1:55.4 score in the first race, reaching the 5,000-win plateau just two weeks shy of his 40th birthday.

Brennan now approaches his April 20 birthday with $70 million in career earnings. He currently ranks fourth in the Meadowlands driver standings with 69 victories and has finished in the Top 5 for eight of the last 10 years.

Brennan began driving in Goshen, N.Y., at age 14 and scored his first pari-mutuel win at Monticello Raceway while still a junior in high school. He drove in Maine and Massachusetts before moving to the New Jersey circuit in late 1994 and first appeared on the national map in 1995 as the driver of two-year-old pacing divisional champs A Stud Named Sue and Chippie's Ruler. His meteoric rise continued in 1996 when he won the $1 million Meadowlands Pace with Hot Lead at the age of 29.

Brennan has ranked among the Top 25 drivers in North America in purses won each year since 1996. He raked in a career-high $9 million in 2006, while adding the fastest race mile of all time, a 1:46.4 with Holborn Hanover, to his accomplishments.

Brennan’s milestone victory kicked off a hot Friday night for the driver. He later picked up wins with Hit Away in the fourth race and Art Star in the eighth, the opening leg of the Robert J. Suslow Stake for three-year-old pacing colts.

Brennan sent Art Star right to the front and narrowly held off the late charge of Liberated Artist to win the $22,500 opening leg of the Suslow series in 1:52.4. Kansas Wildcat was third.

Trained and owned by John and Susan Marshall of Pittston, Pennsylvania, Art Star notched his fifth win in 10 career starts. It was the second straight win at the Meadowlands for the Arturo gelding. He took a mark of 1:52.1 in the Matt’s Scooter Series Consolation on March 30. (Meadowlands press release)

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