Monticello Raceway’s Assistant General Manger Shawn Wiles announced today that the scheduled card of harness racing for Thursday, February 25 racing card is cancelled

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“After being deluged by 18 inches of wet heavy snow on Tuesday evening and with an impending larger snowstorm predicted to begin Thursday morning at 4:00 a.m. it will be better, and safer, for all concerned if we don’t try to race on Thursday,” Wiles said.

Thursday, February 25 was to be the last race card of the month. Live racing will resume on Monday March 1 and continue on the tracks usual four-day-a-week basis throughout the month. However, all post times will be at 12:50pm.

HERITAGE DRIVERS SERIES CONTINUES WITH ST. PADDY PACE ON WED. MARCH 17

When George Polk, Jr. won the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Pace, featuring the talents of African-American drivers in mid-January, and Jennifer Lappe copped the Lady Godiva Pace in February both became eligible to compete in Monticello Raceway’s Heritage Drivers Series 2010 Final which will be presented later this year.

They’ll be joined by future winners of the six other Heritage Drivers Series events planned throughout the remainder of the season. Then in the early fall all the winners will return to the Mighty M for a final contest to crown the overall winner in the series. Other ethnic events slated to be presented this year will feature races for drivers of Irish, Jewish, British, Canadian, Italian, and German descent.

Next up will be the 9th Annual St. Paddy Pace, on St. Patrick’s Day, Wednesday, March 17, and of course, that race will feature the talents of drivers of Irish heritage.

Last year's winning driver Jimmy Marohn, Jr. has been sidelined since early January with a broken collarbone sustained in a racing accident here but he has had plans to return to action and defend his crown in the St Paddy Pace. Last season he reined Ya Gotta Belief to a 1:59:3 clocking which was a new event record erasing the former mark of 2:00:2 set by his dad, Jimmy Marohn (Sr.) when the elder Marohn reined Fly With Action to triumph in the 2006 St Paddy Pace.

Should Jimmy Jr. be ready for this years edition it will again force a confrontation with his dad. Others already consenting to return to action are former St. Paddy Pace winners Mike Doherty (2001) and John Gilmour (2002).

Though Director of Racing, Eric Warner, has a good start with drivers for the St Paddy Pace-2010 Warner will still need eight reinsmen to have a full field.

Any driver of Irish extraction who is interested in competing must contact Warner in the race office at Monticello Raceway by calling 845-794-4100 extension 557; or they can contact the track’s publicity office at ext. 455.