Monticello Raceway hosted an Amateur competition between Great Britain and America on Thursday (Nov. 3).
The 10-race card featured two races for the Amateurs with the Brits coming out on top. English driver Richard Haythornthwaite took both divisions, to give him three wins on North American soil. He won at Pompano during an international competition in 2016.
The first event saw a 28-1 shocker as Ravishin Ruby got up in the final strides to overtake Betabcool N (Grant Cullen).
Always Glorious (Lee Morris) went down the road and clicked off splits of :27.2 and :57.1. As they approached the paddock turn, Prophet Blue Chip (Dave Dziengiel) made a bold brush three-deep on the leaders as they hit the panel in 1:27.2. Ravishin Ruby, who was last at the halfway mark, was following him with live cover. Turning for home, Always Glorious was fading. On the far outside, Prophet Blue Chip was in high gear, as was Ravishin Ruby, who got up in the final strides to win in 1:57.2 for driver Haythornthwaite. Betabcool N, parked the entire mile, held on for second, followed by Prophet Blue Chip.
In the second dash, Christopher Petrelli tried to pull off a wire-to-wire score with Constnlysidewyas A, reeling off soft fractions of :30.3 and 1:01.1. Giddyallyougot popped out of the two-hole, passing the third panel in 1:30.3. Turning for home, Constnlysidewyas A had two lengths on the pack. Twin B Shadow was lurking in the garden spot, and when the passing lane opened up he had clear sailing to the wire. Twin B Shadow bested Constnlysidewyas A by a length in 1:59.4. Giddyallyougot (Grant Cullen) was third.
Monticello Raceway was the first stop of a three-leg North American trek. They are at The Meadowlands on Friday (Nov. 4) and their trip concludes on Saturday (Nov. 5) at Freehold Raceway.
(Monticello)