Trainer Donny Richards registered his 1,000th career training win as Rys Red Rocket won the sixth race at Plainridge Park on Thursday, Aug. 7.
Rys Red Rocket, an eight-year-old daughter of Sunshine Beach-Mo Molly Blue Chip, went all the way on the front. Matty Athearn rated the mare to a tempo of :27.1, :56.1, and 1:24, and Rys Red Rocket prevailed by a length over Premier Star (Mitch Cushing) in 1:52.4. Bean Shooter (Brett Beckwith) completed the ticket. The mare, owned by Richards, has won 30 of 143 career starts.
Richards is a multi-generational talent and has been continually active in harness racing since the Grand Circuit convened over the kite track at Old Orchard Beach. He has long been considered a master of breaking and driving colts, and his success in Maine has been well-documented throughout his career.
Richards started out with four horses of his own in 1945 and was stabled at Cumberland Fair. And from that base, he raced all over Maine for the next eight decades. After 18 years of racing only his own horses, Richards started racing a public stable. In 1980, Hall of Famer Ted Wing wanted him to take 10 horses for Lawrence Kadish, and then he started training for Tom Dillon, Linwood Higgins, and Ival Cianchette.
The Maine Sire Stakes started in 1972, and Richards was involved with the program pretty much from the start. Richards’ roster of Maine Sire Stake winners is too long to list but is probably topped by SK Hurricane (p, 1:53, $176,567), who was a two-time Maine stakes champion and 58-race winner. The rest of the estimated 400 horses Richards has campaigned over his career made their living the hard way: one overnight check at a time. Likely the best of those overnight horses was Postcard Jack (p, 1:55, $238,003), who won more races in Maine than any other horse ever did, or likely ever will: 72 wins in the state and 77 victories overall.
Although he never competed in it himself, Richards had an impact on the Hambletonian as he broke and trained three horses that raced in it: Creatine (1:51.2, $2,182,138), Hot Shot Blue Chip (1:51.2, $1,214,044), and Velocity Hall (1:56.3, $247,062).
Today, at the age of 92, Richards has recorded 4,212 driving wins to go along with his 1,000 training victories. He has recorded $4.2 million in driving earnings and $3.9 million as a trainer.
A pair of $34,722 open-class races were featured at Plainridge on Thursday, and both produced gate-to-wire winners.
In the Fillies and Mares Open Handicap Pace, Millwood Bliss N (Brett Beckwith) took the lead from Swedish Starlet N (Athearn) before the quarter in :26.4 and got the field to the half in :55.3. It was there that Turn The Page N (Ron Cushing) pulled first-over and pushed the leader to three-quarters in 1:22.3. Those two continued to battle around the far turn, but Millwood Bliss N never gave in to Turn The Page N. As the mares motored to the wire, Swedish Starlet N found room at the pegs and barrelled towards the leader, but Millwood Bliss N stayed tough and hung on by a neck to win in 1:50.4, which was a new lifetime mark. Swedish Starlet N got up for second over Turn The Page N in a Kiwi-bred triactor.
Millwood Bliss N ($4.20) is owned by Tom Vassiliou, Cool Cat Racing Inc., Nicholas Tallarico, and Archie McNeil. After a second-place finish in the same class last week, the Melissa Beckwith-trained daughter of Sweet Lou-Millwood Ivy is now two-for-15 this year.
Then, in the Open Handicap Trot, Morning Edition (Shawn Gray) was outside on the lead passing the quarter in :27.1 and then got a nice breather to the half in :57 flat. An outer flow formed heading into turn two, led by Platinum As (Brett Beckwith), who drew within a length of the leader at three-quarters in 1:25.3. Positions remained unchanged on the front around the last turn and into the stretch, where Morning Edition turned back Platinum As and then held off a late-closing A New Leader (Mitchell Cushing) to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:54.2. A New Leader finished second over Platinum As.
Morning Edition ($6) won for the fourth time this year in 19 starts for trainer Alicia Gray. The five-year-old Walner-Morning Glow gelding is owned by Mark Jakubik and Douglas Overhiser.
Bruce Ranger had a driving hat trick on Thursday, of which two winners were trained by Melissa Beckwith.
Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Monday at 4 p.m.
(With files from Plainridge Park)