Mr Thinker wins 8th straight Monticello race

Mr Thinker just keeps rolling along. On Tuesday afternoon the veteran sidewheeler rambled to yet another victory when Zeke Parker guided the pacer to an easy 1:57.3 victory, which was Mr Thinker’s  eighth consecutive triumph.

 

With this latest victory, Mr Thinker now needs just two more to equal the track record of 10-wins-in-a-row, set by Hogies Cam and driver Jordan Stratton during the 2008 campaign.

 

The win was also Mr Thinker's 10th of the season in 13 starts. And add a second and third place finish to go along with all those victories.

 

After starting from the two-hole, Parker put Mr Thinker on the front end and the old timer just seemed to toy with the field. Parker allowed the others to get close at the three quarters and after they did he stalled  for a moment  then urged the old timer on and Mr Tinker responded and paced away to a   2-1/2- length  triumph. Behind Enemy Lines and Jordan Stratton chased Mr Thinker home for the second time in their last three meetings. Winsmith Kirby took home the show dough with Jimmy Devaux aboard.

 

“It amazes me how (owner-trainer) Brian(O’Neill ) keeps him (Mr Thinker)  in top form week after week. He’s not the soundest horse in the world but he has a lot of class and he loves what he’s doing…. and he loves being on the lead,” Parker said after his driving victory.

 

With just a glance at the official program, one will detect nothing but the number one across the page after the start of each of the past six races which, as all handicappers know, means the horse likes to race  on the front-end from start to finish. And though in a few of his consecutive victories Parker tucked him in a pocket for a short time he  didn’t linger there  for  when the field settled Zeke  moved Mr Thinker to the front  where the old guy likes to be.

 

Mr Thinker began this season racing in $4,000 claimers and after his 2:00.1 victory on March 31, owner-trainer Brian O’Neill moved him up to the $5,000 claiming ranks. After winning once  with a $5,000 tag, O’Neill moved him up to $7,500 claiming company  which didn’t matter to Mr Thinker because he won four times in that class.  And now in his last three outings Mr Thinker has defeated $10,000 claimers . His fastest victory was a 1:56 clocking on June 25 and had it not been for a very muddy track on May 12, when the pacer won in 2:00.1 by eight lengths, all of Mr thinker's other  triumphs  during his win steak were in1:58:3 or faster.

 

Mr Thinker, a lifetime winner of over $275,000, owns a career record  of 1:52:1 taken at age three at the now defunct Rosecroft Raceway. That season the Maryland-bred gelding won 12 of 13 races and he has been victorious 44 times in 147 career outings.  (Monticello)