It took until the final race of the night and some near misses in recent programs along the way, but driver Joe Pavia Jr. persisted as he has his entire career and earned his 5,000th lifetime win in the bike on the Wednesday evening, March 14 program at Pompano Park
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Pavia reached the milestone with 6-5 race favourite L Dees Hutspa, a four-year-old Bettors Delight-Heir To Treasure mare, owned and trained by Tracy Brainard of DeLeon Springs, Florida.
"It's great to get this milestone over with, it always seems like you have a lot of close calls before you get one like this," Pavia said in a live TV interview. "I'm really thankful to Tracy Brainard for giving me these two live drives tonight. I really wanted to get this milestone here in Florida since I've been wintering here for close to 30 years -- since I was in my very early 20's -- so it's home to me, my wife Dawn, and our son, as much as anywhere else is."
At the time he reached 5,000 wins in the bike, the horseman hailing from Utica, New York was also on the verge of reaching $32 million in driving career purse earnings. Pavia also takes pride in the fact he trains a 30 horse stable, including Open Mare Billie Blue Chip and 2012 New York Sires Stakes three-year-old colt pace hopeful Steelhead Hanover. At Pompano in recent years he was best known for campaigning Open Mare Esmeralda Semalu, who remains a category track holder at 1:49.4 set in March of 2009. This year's schedule calls for Pavia to ship to his Pennsylvania base at Pocono Downs on April 3.
"I still enjoy driving and the nightly competition, but in three or four years you'll see me scale back to training only," Pavia concluded. "For now I'm enjoying the ride and the living I'm making, which is largely possible because of my help and the great owners that are with me for this journey."
Pavia also clicked with trotter Scorpion Moon earlier on the card in the Wednesday feature to set the stage for his milestone victory.
It would be a huge understatement to say that Scorpion Moon has returned in strong form for his 11-year-old racing campaign in 2012. In the $12,000 Open Handicap Trot, the seemingly ageless veteran summoned another two-move effort to topple South Florida's best again for his 83rd career win.
Starting from the outside in the six-horse field, the son of Armbro Scorpion-Angies Nugget rocketed to the front in :27.2, but surrendered the lead in the middle stages to Big Baller, in rein to Wally Hennessey. After fractions of :56.1 and 1:25.3 and midway on the final turn, Scorpion Moon would summon another speed burst to put away the field as he cruised under the wire in 1:54.1 for owner-trainer Tracy Brainard.
It was the fourth win in seven starts at Pompano in 2012 for Scorpion Moon to increase his season's bankroll to $29,400 and life's earnings to $925,930.
Jaavos Boy also displayed two strong moves to salvage the place position with David Ingraham in the bike and longshot En Controle was brought through stretch traffic by Dan Clements for third.
Through the end of March, post time is 7:15 p.m. Eastern every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday at The Winter Capital Of Harness Racing. Tuesday cards are dropped from the schedule in April.
(With files from Pompano Park)