A romantic adventure on a cold day at Monticello

Monday afternoon at Monticello Raceway could have been easily misconstrued as an afternoon on the tundra with winds whipping up to 45 miles per hour and the temperature hovering near eight degrees. But, like the mailman, harness racing at the Mighty M  continues through all kinds of weather.

The pacing feature produced one of the greatest finishes in recent weeks when Romantic Adventure got up in the final strides to score a short neck victory in a time of 2:01.2 on an extremely tough day to be racing horses.

But horsemen are troopers somewhat like football players because they know rain, sleet or snow or frigid weather the show must go on.

In the daily pacing feature Rootintootinfilly, with Bruce Clarke in the bike, got all the early calls when the 5-year-old mare showed the way to the half in 1:00.2. Nearing that point three others took shots at the leader, one of which was Romantic Adventure who driver Ron Cushing moved third-up behind cover as they approached the halfway point.

Up the backstretch the field swarmed in on Rootintootinfilly and by the three quarter pole Boca Beckons (Bruce Aldrich, Jr.) had cleared and made the front end. However, from there trouble was on the way and though Boca Beckons still had command at the top of the lane a host of others were not only rallying but making up ground with every stride.

Coming off the final turn Cushing fanned three deep with Romantic Adventure and the 5-year-old Keystone Raider mare dug in and as the finish wire approached she held off  Celestial Hanover (Greg Merton) and Julie Julie (Jimmy Marohn) in a blanket finish.

Boca Beckons was just one tick behind the top three and had to settle for fourth money but set up a 5-7-4-2 superfecta payoff worth $6,591.

Kevin Sywyk of Swartz Creek, Mich., owns the winner who rewarded her backers with an $8.30 win mutuel. (Monticello)

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