After a pair of runner-up finishes in his final two drives on Monday evening, Dan Clements made no mistake in reaching a career milestone with his first appearance on the Tuesday, January 25 program at Pompano

Park. Trotter Marion Big Time was a drawing away winner in the third race for his 2,000th lifetime winning drive.

"It's nice to get it out of the way but it's just a number and not really that big a deal to me,"

Clements explained to the South Florida trackside faithful and TV audience that he began coming to Pompano when he was 19 years old. He's competed seasonally at the South Florida oval for over 20 years and paused to reflect on some of his top career experiences.

"I was young and impressionable when my dad [Norm Clements] was a co-owner of one of the greatest horses in history, Cam Fella," Dan said. "I learned a lot as a teenager about horsemanship by watching how Pat Crowe did things although most of my memories from that era almost 30 years ago are how much fun the bus trips were. The two biggest wins I'd say I've had driving were with [three-year-old filly trotter] Corinas Mission in the [2002] Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Super Final because a big portion of her earnings were going to my cousin's work for the destitute children of Haiti. The other big one was a huge upset [31-1] when my son and I had a road trip to Cleveland and won the [2006] Battle Of Lake Erie with Buckeye One," Clements added.

Clements also spoke of a long-standing friendship and kindred spirit with Bruce Ranger, the leading driver in the 47-year history of harness racing in South Florida.

"Bruce and I have learned a lot of life lessons together the hard way and take a bigger picture view of things now. We try to be more at peace with our lives and we're at the stage of trying to give back to people in need and worthwhile causes," Clements said. "That isn't to say we aren't still competitive though. We recently made a friendly side wager on who would get to their next milestone first, Bruce to 8,000 driving wins or me to 2,000. And of course Bruce beat me again."

'Esmeralda' Has One More To Go

In the second to last start of her great career, track record holder Esmeralda Semalu needed every last inch of the racetrack to secure a victory in the weekly top distaff pacing event for a $12,000 purse in South Florida.

From an assigned outside post in the field of nine, Joe Pavia Jr. elected to take a tuck into sixth position in the opening stages as Im Just Special, with Bruce Ranger in tow, was pressured three-wide to the quarter in :26.3 before posting the half in :55.4 and three-quarters in 1:24. Turning into the stretch, with Im Just Special and Nillabomb, in rein to Dan Clements, tiring, Esmeralda Semalu emerged from cover to take the lead. At the wire, the decision was a diminishing nose in 1:53.3 over a late charging C R Hope, driven by Ricky Macomber Jr. Another Judy, in rein to Anthony Napolitano, completed the trifecta.

Next week, Esmeralda Semalu is expected to go to the gate for her retirement race. The seven-year-old daughter of Electric Stena-Anemone Semalu, owned by Judith Klein Gilbert and Stanley H. Levin of Boca Raton and Highland Beach, Florida will then be shipped to Blue Chip Farms for her first breeding to Bettors Delight.

(Pompano Park)