It was all in the family when Vincent Ginsburg captured top driver honours and Vincent Fusco Jr. was the leading trainer when the 109-date Freehold Raceway meet concluded on Saturday, December 12.
Ginsburg is the nephew of Fusco.
In the driver standings, Ginsburg posted 154 wins from 875 starters for earnings of $573,914. Finishing second was Eric Abbatiello with 148 wins and $586,070 while Stephen Smith topped earnings with $632,072, with 133 wins for third-place. Rounding out the top five are James Marshall III with 123 wins and Joseph Bongiorno with 78.
Fusco led the way in the trainer standings with 72 wins and $223,271 in earnings. The top five also included Nick Surick with 49 wins, John Urbanski with 40, Kelvin Harrison with 26 and Robert Bongiorno with 25.
The 2016 meet opens on Friday, January 1, with qualifiers in the morning at 9:30 a.m. and the first pari-mutuel race at 12:30 p.m.
Entries for the opening day card will close at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 while the box for qualifiers will close at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 31, 2015.
"I am looking forward to the 2016 racing season,” said Freehold’s Director of Racing and Racing Secretary Karen Fagliarone. “We have the Standardbred Development Fund for two-year-olds scheduled in the fall next year and I am optimistic that we will offer fuller fields. Our stake schedule also includes the New Jersey Sire Stakes - Green Acres, the Dexter Cup, the Lady Suffolk, the Charles and Helen Smith Trots, the Lou Babic Paces, the Harold and Marion Dancer Trots, and a late closer which will be scheduled sometime in September. The Open Space Pace is scheduled for Saturday, September 17, 2016.”
Live racing will take place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays plus three Mondays: January 18, February 15 and September 5.
“Our draw schedule will remain the same with the exception of Martin Luther King Day,” Fagliarone said. “We are hopeful that we can get together a race to honour Martin Luther King Day. I have reached out to Montrell and George Teague, and they have both expressed interest. The race will be held the prior week, though, to accommodate their schedule.”
(SBOANJ / Photo by Helene Gregory for World Wide Racing Photos)