Tracys Song ran her current win streak to 11 when the eight-year-old Astreos mare scored a 2:01.4 triumph in the seventh race at Monticello Raceway on Monday, April 1.
If this sounds redundant to you, just imagine how the drivers who have been chasing her over the past few months feel.
With Bruce Aldrich Jr. again at the lines, Tracys Song used her patented front-end style to turn back seven others and extend her track record for most consecutive wins by a mare.
“I can’t believe her,” Aldrich said. “How Bob (Lounsbury, the mare's trainer) keeps her in top form week after week is beyond me. I’m just glad he does and (I’m) glad he lets me driver her.”
After the race got started, Dolly Little Angel and Pat Beeler didn’t let Tracys Song take command until they passed the quarter in :29.3, a move which he probably hoped would take the sting out of Tracys Girl.
After he let Aldrich and Tracys Song take the lead, Beeler sat a two-hole journey and didn't move until the top of the lane. However, when he tried to rally his mare, he found out just how tough Tracys Song is. Tracys Song dug in and wouldn’t let Dolly Little Angel, or third place finisher Get Ready To Rhumba (driven by Zeke Parker), beat her.
Still racing with a $9,000 claiming tag, Tracys Song extended her lead in wins this year in North America, now two better than Lislea Miles and Haroun Hanover’s nine.
The Nancy Fugere of Westbrookville, New York, Tracys Song paid just $2.40 for win.
On the horizon for the pacing mare is the all-time Monticello Raceway record of 15 consecutive wins set in 2010 by Northern Chief and driver Mike Merton.
Asked if she has a shot at 15 in a row, trainer Bob Lounsbury said, “I really don’t know, but we’ll take it a week at a time. If she stays sound she may, but week in and week out racing on the front end will sooner or later take its toll.”
(Monticello)