Trainer Travis Alexander celebrated a miletone moment in his career with a longtime stable star getting him to the 1,000-win mark.
Alexander reached the milestone when Pleaseletmeknow won the $47,945 Open Pace on Monday, June 17 at Yonkers Raceway.
Driven by Matt Kakaley in the evening's eighth race, Pleaseletmeknow followed cover three-wide from the backfield with a quarter-mile to go and out-sprinted his fellow late-closers with a :29.1 final frame to prevail in 1:51.4 by three-quarters of a length. Birthday (George Brennan) was second and Just Bet It All (Scott Zeron) finished third.
Sent postward as the 9-2 fourth choice in the field of eight, the five-year-old American Ideal-I Said Please gelding returned $11.40 to win after the favoured Pound For Pound (Brent Holland) was parked out by Ultimaroca (Jordan Stratton) through a :53.4 front-end duel and faded to sixth.
Alexander has trained the Fiddler's Creek Stable homebred for his career. A former Messenger Stakes winner, Pleaseletmeknow has earned 19 victories in 52 starts and more than $800,000 in earnings.
Alexander is in the midst of his fourth straight seven-figure season and is on pace to smashing his career-best numbers from a year ago when his stable won 194 races and earned more than $3.88 million. His stable has already amassed more than $3.2 million this year with the milestone victory marking his 143rd seasonal score.
"How fitting that 'Paulie' gave it to us," said Alexander, referring to Pleaseletmeknow, in a social media post. "Here's to the next 1,000!"
Alexander quickly got started working towards the next milestone, adding another win to his resume on Tuesday at Pocono Downs with Courtship, bringing his seasonal UTRS to 0.428 through 510 starts.
The 45-year-old Linden, Michigan native, who recorded his first training victory in 1999, has earned $19.2 million in purses lifetime.
(Standardbred Canada; Photo of Pleaseletmeknow from a previous win)