Blue Creek Angie picks up 19th win of season

Blue Creek Angie has joined three others at the top of the North American leaderboard in races won this year when Bruce Aldrich Jr. guided the 8-year-old On The Attack mare to her 19th seasonal triumph at Monticello Raceway on Monday, Dec. 26. She stopped the timer at 1:58.2. Her seasonal best was a 1:55.4 clocking  in September.

 

Now this season-- which is quickly drawing to an end--  from 42 trips to post Blue Creek Angie  sports 19 wins; 1 seconds and four thirds and nearly $50,000 in purse money. Perhaps more remarkable is the fact that the pacing mare now has 72 career wins. She’s proudly owned by Jeanne Zukowski of Lake Peekskill, NY.

 

Perhaps more amazingly than that is the fact that Aldrich has been the regular driver of two of the four  horses with 19 wins this year.  His other mount, Edie’s Desire, owned by Peggy Olmstead of Monticello, NY, also has 19 wins this year.

 

Moreover, Aldrich is putting the cap on another fine racing season. Besides his victory with Blue Creek Angie that afternoon the 43 year old driver won   two other races on the card and  now has a seasonal total of 415 wins. And after a year-long battle for driving supremacy with Billy “Zeke” Parker, Jr.,  Aldrich vaulted away from his nemesis in early December and now leads the bearded wonder by  28 victories. So now is the time to put a circle around Aldrich’s name as leading driver at Monticello Raceway during the 2011 racing season.

 

Aldrich is approaching a personal milestone of 4000 career driving victories and barring any unforeseen circumstances the Brattleboro, Vermont native will reach that total next year. Currently he has driven 3809 winners.

 

“I’m proud of what I have accomplished this year and beating my boyhood idol Billy Parker (Jr.) in races won here  was no easy task. Zeke can still drive with the best of them and his 10,600 winners can attest to that,” Aldrich said. “Horses from my barn raced real well for me this season and I was lucky enough to get  many live catch-drives which helped me keep pace with Zeke all year long.”

 

This will mark the second consecutive year that Aldrich has won the Mighty M driving title. Although he was the driver with the most wins  during the first decade of the 21st century here at Monticello Raceway he had only won one leading driver  title over that period.  (Monticello)