Stakes double for Wrenn in White Ruffles

Michigan-based Peter Wrenn, one of Meadowlands Racetrack’s leading drivers in the mid-90s, scored a stakes double when he returned to the track Thursday night. Wrenn guided his homebred mare Amarillo Sky to a late-rallying victory in the sixth race, one of four $12,500 White Ruffles Series divisions for pacing mares on the card. Amarillo Sky got up in time to best I Cant Stoplovinu by a neck in 1:54. She paid $9 to win.

 

Amarillo Sky won the first two races of her career at Hoosier Park last March before being sidelined by injury. She missed six months before returning to the racetrack in winning fashion with an eight-length romp Nov. 18 at Windsor Raceway. Since then, she has won four out of five starts.

 

“Her Hoosier debut was outstanding [crushed the field by 11 lengths on March 25] and then she came right back and did it again,” Wrenn said. “We were getting her ready for the Ontario Sire Stakes when she broke a small piece off a sesamoid bone. Rood and Riddle [Equine Hospital in Lexington, KY] operated on her. We gave her the time to heal and, fortunately, no damage was done.”

 

Wrenn and his wife Melanie bred the 4-year-old daughter of Modern Art out of their mare Catch A Raider, who earned $271,969 racing from 2002-2006. They also raced Amarillo Sky’s grand dam, Grandpa’s Ashley ($243,865). Amarillo Sky is the first foal out of Catch A Raider.

 

“Amarillo Sky was an embryo transplant,” Wrenn noted. “We raced Catch A Raider that year. We took the egg out and she kept on racing.”

Wrenn also steered TC’s Delight to victory in the third race, another White Ruffles division, for trainer John Stark Jr. Sent off the 9-5 favorite, TC’s Delight paced a career best 1:56 and paid $4.60.

 

A Detroit native, Wrenn was a fixture in Michigan racing before shifting his tack to the Meadowlands in 1995. He won both the Governor Alfred Driscoll (now the W.R. Haughton) and U.S. Pacing Championship that year with Under Orders. But Wrenn is best known for campaigning Hi Ho Silverheel’s, who won the 1997 Graduate and ranked among the top free-for-all pacers at the Meadowlands before retiring with $1.1 million in earnings. Wrenn returned to his home state of Michigan in 1999.

 

“It’s always nice to win, but winning at the Meadowlands is special,” Wrenn said. (Meadowlands)