Talk about a scramble. One of the strangest happenings ever in a harness race took place at Monticello Raceway on Monday, June 27
.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the program's ninth race until the pacers approached the finish line. There was interference just as the field approached the finish line. The interference caused a rallying horse, Armbro Dasher, to go down and catapult his driver, Bobby Williams, Jr., over top of the fallen horse.
Williams got up and grabbed his mare just after she got to her feet (the mare wasn’t hurt). Armbro Dasher (the '#3' horse) sustained some scrapes and bruises but nothing serious.
To view a photo gallery of the final strides of the dash, click here.
Williams had been moving his mount between horses but, the duo was squeezed on the outside by the Bob Krikorian-driven Hartangel (#7) and on the inside by the Roy Marohn-driven Success Brings Joy (#5).
What made the happening noteworthy was the fact that the two horses which interfered with the fallen Armbro Dasher continued and they reached the finish line simultaneously.
After careful scrutiny of the finish-line photo, the judges initially declared a dead heat between Success Brings Joy and Hartangel. Then, after reviewing the head-on film of the stretch drive, the judges determined that Marohn and Krikorian were both at fault by taking the racing room from Williams’ horse. The judges then placed both dead-heat winners out of the money.
When the race was finally declared official, the Kevin Hough-driven Winbak Transfer (#2), who finished a neck behind the dead-heat finishers, was declared the winner.
The Vincent Ginsburg-driven All American Winner (#8), who had finished a nose behind Winbak Transfer, was placed second. The Bruce Aldrich, Jr.-driven Bilmar Diva, who was beaten more than eight lengths, was moved up to third place.
(With files from Monticello)