Trotter gets all the money again at Monticello

When you’re hot you're hot. Case in point Getthemoney as again on Wednesday at Monticello Raceway, the 7-year-old Credit Winner gelding notched his fourth victory against the best trotters on the grounds when Jimmy Marohn got the trotter up in the final strides to score a 2:00.3 triumph.

But halfway down the lane the Getthemoney’s chances of winning looked bleak because Billy Parker Jr. had Match That well in front the entire mile and when the track record-holding mare headed for home she appeared to be strong enough to  post a victory despite being sent off at odds of 33-1.

However, not 50 yards before the finish Match That went offstride which enabled Getthemonmey to charge to the front when the photo was taken.

“We got a little lucky when Billy’s mare broke,” driver Marohn said. “I don’t believe we woulda caught him but when you're hot you're hot, and Getthemoney has been hot this year.”

With that victory Getthemoney has already bankrolled over $24,000 and was off the board only once in his 10 seasonal starts here.

East Creek Huck (Kyle DiBenedetto) trotted by the breaking Match That to finish second and Match That was third, left in that position after the judges determined she lost ground while on a break.

Speaking of Parker, who's known as "Zeke" on the backstretch, he’s approaching his 56^th birthday.  

There was a time in the sport--during the 1940s and 1950s--that harness racing was considered “an old man’s sport.” And for the most part that was true since the professional horsemen of that era drove the horses that they trained, and many a trainer had been around for decades prior.

But with the introduction of the “catch-driver” all that has changed and in recent years it’s getting to be a young man’s game. Older drivers lose out to the hot-handed youngsters.

At one time Parker was a hot-handed youngster and still to this day he hasn’t lost a bit of his driving talent.

On Wednesday, Zeke reined three winners and still is a force to be reckoned with on the racetrack. He won the first race with Ken Weckstein’s trotter, Buck ID in 2:01.2 and then copped the seventh with Mary Beauregard’s pacer Financial Aid in a 1:58.3 clocking.

Parker finished the afternoon reining Jordan Derue and Heidi Rohr’s pacer Joe Hustler to a 1:59.3 triumph in the last race on the card.

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