One of the continent's best up and coming drivers has decided to bring his driving suit to The Isle Pompano Park for the foreseeable future
. Matt Kakaley, 21, has officially re-located from Ohio and wasted no time making an impact in his South Florida debut as he won the first race on Wednesday evening in gate-to-wire fashion with claiming pacer Road Hazard in 1:54.3.
"There had been a lot of discussion about me going to Ontario for the winter with the Mickey and Ron Burke Stable but that won't be happening now," Kakaley says. "I'll definitely travel for them any time if they ask me to. At this point in time my options were to return to Northfield Park (Cleveland) or come here to help my mother, Linda, with our stable of seven horses. I decided to come here and stay warm and see how I can do catch driving too."
On the Wednesday evening October 28 card at The Isle Pompano Park, Kakaley debuted in South Florida with an overwhelming vote of confidence. He had seven drives in all on the 10-race card. It was less than four months ago that Kakaley became the youngest driver in history to reach 1,000 lifetime winning drives. His year has also been underscored by major stakes victories for the Burke outfit with Free For All pacer Foiled Again in the Battle Of Lake Erie and the Rick Kane Memorial. He was named the sport's 2007 Rising Star.
"I'm committed to staying here for sure until December 1 and maybe right through until next Spring," Kakaley says. "For trainers like Vito Fuoco and Mike Deters to use me as soon as I arrived here is something I'm very thankful for. Now the challenge will just be to keep working hard and driving as well as possible every chance I get."
Florida Bred Final To Fine Filly
The outside post draw luck to Post 9, breaking horses around her in the first quarter and being passed early in the stretch was not enough to keep Your Not My Friend from winning the $19,800 final of the combined and Orchid and Pelican Series for two-year-old Florida bred trotters on Wednesday evening.
Owner and trainer Robert Williams, Jr. had driven the filly by Famously-Shes A Loan in all seven career starts prior to this Series final when he handed over the lines to veteran Mickey McNichol. In the first quarter both halves of the 1-5 entry of Be Famous and Pocohontas Fame made breaks and after negotiating the off stride rivals and traffic Your Not My Friend made the lead in :30.1 and stayed there through the middle stages of 1:00 and 1:30.
Early in the stretch Your Not My Friend surrendered her lead to Jeanie Marie with Warren Harp in the bike and that rival drew away by almost two lengths before weakening at the tote board. Your Not My Friend mounted an improbable looking late to win in battling back fashion in a life's mark of 2:00.4. It was the homebred filly's third win in eight starts this year pushed her career earnings to almost $16,000. Shes A Winner with Tom Wantz in the bike finished third.
Ingraham On Edge
Driver David Ingraham is on the verge of a major career milestone of 6,000 lifetime winning drives when racing resumes on Friday evening. In Wednesday evening's final race the Maine and Florida based reinsman took an inside trip with claiming pacer Get The Keys and split horses in late stretch to push her career win total to 5,999. The win was somewhat fitting since Ingraham was on the losing end of a pair of tight win photo finishes earlier on the program with conditioned trotter Make Mine A Double and conditioned pacer Murcielago.
The Isle Pompano Park is now set to begin a schedule of four live programs for week for the month of November, with post time at 7:05 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evening. For December through March, The Winter Capital Of Harness Racing will present five live cards per week when Tuesday racing also joins the schedule.
(Pompano Park)