There is no denying that Bruce Aldrich Jr. has arrived. He’s had a great season and is third in races won in North America with 632. On Friday afternoon over a muddy racetrack at Monticello Raceway, Aldrich put the icing on the cake when he reined eight winners on the card.
Eight wins on one card at the Mighty M is the second-best production by a driver on a single card here since the track was established in 1958. His output left him one short of Billy “Zeke” Parker’s nine wins, which the bearded wonder had on October 22, 1996.
“I had a shot at the record, I really did,” Aldrich confided. “I thought I’d win with [Lou] Pena’s trotter [Michaels Wild Boy] in the fourth, but he jumped it off.”
One has to know Aldrich to understand his humility as to highlight a shortcoming in a thoroughly magnificent day instead of blowing his own horn.
Aldrich began his assault by winning the first three races on the Friday program. After finishing off the board with Michaels Wild Boy in the fourth, he then just missed by a head in the fifth when he finished second behind his brother-in-law Jimmy Devaux.
But Aldrich was back on track in the sixth surviving a tight photo for win number four.
He proceeded to win the eighth with a hot favourite from the Bob Lounsbury barn, one of four winners he drove today for the meet’s top trainer.
Aldrich then copped the 10th and 11th races and capped his greatest day in the sulky by winning the 13th and final race.
After he stopped accentuating what went wrong, he came back to his senses after some urging and then proudly spoke of the afternoon’s production.
“I had won seven here earlier this year, but the eight wins today is my all-time best,” he said from his cell phone while en route back home to Saratoga Springs. “I guess you could say that it was a pretty good day.
“Tomorrow I’ll have more time to reflect about this day and maybe I’ll appreciate what I accomplished all the more. Now I have two consecutive days off, something I hadn’t all season long. I’m certainly going to enjoy them.”
(Monticello Raceway)