Over a track rated 'fast,' yet a second slow, Lively Moment covered a one and three-quarter-mile distance in World Record time Monday, December 15 at Monticello Raceway in the Monticello Marathon.
The five-year-old daughter of Master Lavec, in rein to Bruce Aldrich, Jr., was a decisive winner in 3:42:4, a new world mark for a trotter over a half mile track at the extended distance. Lively Moment’s clocking shattered the former record of 3:45:2 set at Monticello Raceway during the 1998 campaign by Poppa IM and driver Jack Rice.
One would think that keeping back off the early pace would be the ideal way to approach the long-distanced race, but driver Aldrich wanted no part of that. He gunned Lively Moment to the front and they were on top before the field came off the first turn. From there they raced comfortably on the front end the entire way.
According to a Monticello release, some of the drivers in the race became somewhat confused about how many revolutions they were going in the race.
At what is usually the three-eighths pole, Billy Parker, Jr. moved Perfect Gerry up to challenge Aldrich and Lively Moment, but as he was passing Jordan Stratton and Thasos, who were trotting along in third position, Stratton yelled over to Parker, “hey Zeke, we still have another mile to go!”
Aldrich himself admitted that during the course of the competition he had a hard time recalling how much further they had to go to the finish.
“You know,” Aldrich added with a chuckle, “with all the movement in the race it was hard to keep track of exactly where we were and how far we had to go. But my mare was strong on the engine and we just kept going forward.”
When asked how he felt about winning the marathon, Aldrich wasted no time in saying, “I’m honoured to have a World Record. The race was something different and it was a lot of fun.”
Lively Moment is owned by the King Of The Castle Stable of White Plains, New York. She was sent off as the favourite in the race and paid $5.20 on a win ticket.
(With files from Monticello)