After a few months hiatus Monticello Raceway’s Heritage Drivers Series is set to resume on Thursday afternoon, August 29 with a race for drivers of British Heritage, dubbed the Mayflower Mile.
The event, will be the seventh leg of the Raceway’s year-long Heritage Drivers Series and the winning driver in the Mayflower Mile will represent the “Brits” in the series finale slated later this fall.
Drivers who already have earned a berth in the series finale—the All-America Pace-- via their victories in the Heritage Drivers Series preliminary legs include: Dennis Watson (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Pace); Jimmy Marohn, Jr. (St. Paddy Pace), Bobby Krivelin (Passover Pace), and Veronica Merton(Lady Godiva Pace).
Zeke Parker is the defending champion in the Mayflower Mile. With his three victories on Monday, Parker is now just 20 wins behind fellow Pine State native, Walter Case, Jr.,who has recorded 11,038 driving victories.
“To me passing Casey is sort of sad since he hasn’t driven a horse in 10 years, except for a few drives he had at Plainridge (Racecourse) a couple of years ago. It’s shame he can’t get back racing. He’s a great driver,” Parker said.
It may take a few weeks but when Parker reins his 11,039th winner he’ll be the sixth winningest driver in North American harness racing history. He'll be back to defend his Mayflower title after winning last year’s event with Docs Whiskey in a time of 1:57.2.
“Currently we have a quite few drivers of English descent ready to compete but we still can use more in order to have a full field,” said Eric Warner the tracks Director of racing. “Anyone with family origins which can be traced back to anywhere in the United Kingdom is eligible to compete in our Mayflower Mile as long as they have either a “P (provisional) or “A” (full)” license from the USTA.”
Any person who fits the criteria and would like to compete in the Mayflower Mile, is asked to please contact Warner in the race office by calling 845-794-4100 ext. 557; or they can call the track’s public relations department at 845-794-4100 ext. 455.
(Monticello)