The rains came on Wednesday, June 22 at Monticello Raceway. And after they let up, they came again, and were consist throughout the afternoon, but the show went on just the same.
Billy 'Zeke' Parker, Jr., who has won races --- more than 10,000 of them --- in all types of weather didn’t seem to mind the adversity, or the heavy precipitation falling from the skies, and steered five winners during the card. One of his wins came in the weekly trotting feature with Chosen Voyageur.
Horses were interfering with each other and were breaking stride off the bat, but Parker took advantage of the situation by sending Chosen Voyageur to the front. Once on top, Parker kept the pedal to the metal and the pair easily navigated the muddy race course in a time of 2:01:1 for the open-length win.
Owned by Brenda Messenger and Stephen Petersheim and trained by Gary Messenger, Chosen Voyageur paid $2.90 for win.
The day belonged to Parker. He won the first race with Orphan Victor in 2:01:4 and captured the third with Mandolin Hanover in 2:01:3.
Parker’s third victory came behind Chosen Voyageur in the eighth race. He then proceeded to win the ninth dash with Sittinthemorningsun in 2:00:3 and the tenth race with JK Hooty in 1:59:4.
(With files from Monticello)