At 65 years of age, Alan Schwartz was the youngest of the eight 'oldtimers' that participated in Monticello Raceway's second edition of the Metamucil Mile, a race for drivers 65 years and older, on Sunday, December 19. However, the few years edge he had on his competitors didn’t really make the difference -- it was 1-5 shot Haley And Taylor who the bettors thought was the best in the contest. And with Schwartz at the lines, the bettors felt quite confident.

Their confidence was rewarded when Schwartz guided his pacer to a wire-to-wire victory in 2:05:1 over 19-1 longshot JL Lucy, driven by 71 year old General 'Bubba' Washington, Jr. Third place went to Donnina Hanover, who was in rein to seven-time 'Mighty M' driving champion John Gilmour, now 72 years of age.

Schwartz had returned the night before from a week in the Caribbean to find he had drawn the favourite in the Metamucil Mile. And he drove her like she was the best. He lulled his competition to sleep with early fractional splits of :32:1 and 1:04:4.

“Hey, nobody came, so what was I to do, “Schwartz said about the slow half. “I wasn’t out there to do any favours. I just wanted to win the race.”

Approaching the halfway point, Washington moved JL Lucy out to challenge and she and Haley And Taylor raced side by side to the third stanza, which tripped the timer at 1:35:2. At that point, the field had bunched up with only five lengths separating the first and last horses.

But visions of things to come developed on the final turn when Haley and Taylor opened up a two-length lead on JL Lucy. From there, a :29.4 final quarter had Schwartz and his pacer all alone at the wire. The duo was an easy four-length winner.

In the winner's circle after being presented with a huge trophy and a container of Metamucil, Schwartz jokingly said, "This was more of a milestone than getting my Social Security.”

The winning horse, Haley And Taylor, is owned and trained by Brad Clouser of East Waterford, Pennsylvania. She returned just $2.60 on a successful Win wager.

Other 'oldtimers' that participated in the event were Alexander 'Doc' Savran (age 72), Paul Moore (67), Richard Campalong (67), Howard 'Doc' Gill (84) and Gerry Fielding (67).

(Monticello)