Jimmy Taggart Jr. drove five more winners on Thursday afternoon at Monticello Raceway after reining four here yesterday. On Wednesday four of Taggart’s wins came from the Gary Messenger barn and today three more were harnessed by Messenger.
Now with 94 driving victories Taggart is fourth in races won on the local leaderboard but no one is currently as hot as he is.
Taggart began the day with a 2:01.4 front- end victory with Blameless, a three-year-old Crazed gelding owned by Dr. Scott Woogen and Brenda Messenger. The good looking trotter from the Gary Messenger barn notched his second lifetime victory and paid $2.30 for win.
Then beginning in the fifth race Taggart went on a tear with three consecutive victories, two of which were trained by Messenger.
In the fifth Taggart guided Brenda Messenger’s sophomore trotting colt, Enzo Pezza, to the 2:02.2 come-from behind score and returned a $13.20 win mutuel.
Taggart then won the sixth race with Bob Petitto’s veteran trotter Stay All Day ($5.40) in a time of 2:02.1 and then scored his third victory for Gary Messenger when he guided Putnams Art home first in 1:57.1. Sent off the favourite in the race, the pacer, a six-year-old Southwind Balsam gelding owned by Brenda Messenger and Dr. Scott Woogen, paid $4.90 for win.
Win number five on the card came in the tenth and final race when Taggart sat the pocket and rallied down the passing lane to score a 1:57.3 victory with the Dennis Laterza owned and trained, Lolas Cruiser. It was the six-year-old Yankee Cruiser gelding ‘s first win in 15 seasonal starts and he paid $6.60 for win.
“I’ve had a real good couple of days Taggart admitted. “Gary’s (Messenger) youngsters are rounding into form and everything seems to be going my way now. I’ve been putting my horses in the right place and thankfully they’re been responding.”
(Monticello Raceway)