The Pompano Park tote board practically exploded on Sunday night (March 3), as a mandatory payout in the track's Super Hi-5 and the Miller-Tetrick Annual Pro-Am event took centre stage.
Handle was $1.36 million, including a record pool in the Super Hi-5 in excess of $385,000, which sent that total pool with the carryover soaring over the $540,000 plateau.
Though the prohibitive 1-10 favourite, Prairie Panther, was an easy winner in the Super Hi-5 finale, there were 247 winning tickets sold on the winning 7-4-6-3-10 combo, each worth a handsome $1,926.34 for each 20-cent wager.
The annual Miller-Tetrick Pro-Am Challenge was contested at the south Florida and the David Miller team edged the Tim Tetrick team, 122 to 84, in the four-race event which benefitted the Make-A-Wish Foundation and New Vocations. Each charity received a $5,000 donation from the Florida Amateur Driving Club, which sent their total donations over $210,000 since their inception.
Tetrick started the festivities when he reached the winner's circle with Alessandro Spano's Chocolate Xplosion in 1:56.3, a seasonal best time, over the pacesetting Gespacho (who was driven by Dein Spriggs) and Undercover Bro (David Miller).
The second Pro-Am event went to the longest proposition on the tote board, Hoss Cartwright, in 1:59.1. After having been sent off at 79-1, the son of Muscles Yankee provided his faithful with a ‘bonanza’ payoff of $161.20. Owner-trainer Leon Cable was in the eight-year-old's sulky, which resulted in a $1,621.40 exacta payoff, as well as a trifecta worth $12,908.20.
The 20-cent superfecta came back at $7,368.84. Lodi Bank Robber (Carl Garofalo) and My Cousin Vinnie (Tony Dinges) were next in the event.
About 20 minutes later, Alfredo Dream was a photo-finish winner for Jeff Schaefer – his first win since January of 2017 – at 68-1, which ignited a win payoff of $139.20 and a 20-cent pentafecta worth $8,564.18. Donna Gilson-Eferstein is the owner-trainer of the son of Infinitif. Global Inspiration (David Miller) and Shadow Copy (Ron Cusimano) were two-three in the mile, clocked in 1:59.
The finale went to Keystone Blade, handled by Sky Walker in 1:56, over Fire In My Heart (John Mungillo) and Security Guard (Dein Spriggs). As the favourite, Keystone Blade, owned by the Walker Stable and trained by Walker, returned $5.20 to win.
After the event, both Tetrick and Miller had high praise for the Florida Amateur Driving Club and the Pro-Am event, with Tetrick lamenting, "This gives us a chance to give a bit of payback to a sport that has been so great to us. As I have said many times, our horses are athletes that give us their all during their career and New Vocation is a wonderful organization that provides great homes and environments for them when their racing days are over. I salute the Florida Amateur Driving Club for all the great work they do."
Miller chimed in, saying, "It's just great that the Florida Amateur Driving Club provides us an avenue to give back. In the case of Make-A-Wish, if our efforts make even one wish come true, it's well worth it."
Miller, by the way, was flown in for the event by Dr. Ian Moore, who escorted Miller to and from the event so he could participate.
Several dignitaries were in attendance for the festivities, including representatives from Make-A-Wish, New Vocations, Chris Tully and the USTA's Mike Tanner.
The $10,000 Open Handicap Pace was won by Lets Roll. The four-year-old son of Roll With Joe made a bold backside brush to the top before going on to record a one-length win for Mike Simons in 1:51,1, a new lifetime mark.
Owned by Rosie Huff along with the Beauty Bridle Stable and the Our Three Sons Stable, Lets Roll pinned thee defeat on Brigadierbronski A (Ricky Macomber Jr.) and American Hustle (Scott Zeron). McMach recovered from an early miscue to finish fourth while Andereios Hustle picked up the final awards.
Racing continues on Monday night with a carryover in the track's Pick-5 of $10,686.22.
Post time will be at 7:20 p.m.
(Pompano Park)