Oosting takes Blml title

Balmoral Park’s 2006 driving and training titles have gone to Mike Oosting and Darcy Pletcher, respectively, with Oosting easily capturing the driving title with 329 victories and Pletcher taking home the honors with 89 victories.

Oosting outdistanced second-place finisher Tim Tetrick by 39 wins. The Fremont, Mich. native had a total 1,578 starts posting 329 wins, 269 seconds and 227 thirds. His 20.85 winning percentage and 52.28 in-the-money percentage were also tops among the driving colony. For the year Oosting’s drives earned $2,010,980 at Balmoral Park.

Ryan Anderson was third, Sam Widger fourth and Dave Magee fifth in the victory standings. Widger captured the earnings crown with a total of $2,136,891 in purses.

The training title came down to the final night and when the smoke cleared it was Pletcher on top with Ken Rucker second with 84 wins, while Nelson Willis was third with 82 trips to the winner’s circle. The 2006 battle was the closest three-trainer finish in Balmoral Park history.

Pletcher sent out 871 starters in 2006 posting 89 victories, 87 seconds and 96 third-place finishers. His winning percentage was 13.26 and Pletcher trained steeds earned $580,249 in purse money.

Rounding out the top five in the standings were Joe Anderson and Homer Hochstetler who each sent out 69 winners. Hochstetler was also the leader in purse earnings among the trainers with his horses banking $967,911 for the year.

Ervin Miller and Julie Miller tied for the top honors in winning percentage among trainers with more than 100 starters as each posted an eye-popping 26.85 winning percentage. (Balmoral)

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