When Ron Cushing took Kehmmywood gate to wire to win the eighth race at Plainridge Park on Thursday afternoon he celebrated the 2,500th win of his career.
Born in Farmington, Maine, the 54-year-old Cushing started his driving career in 1981 at age 17. He has competed and just about every north-east track from Maine to New Jersey and has won numerous driving titles over the years. In his 16,718 starts he has won 2,500, has been second 2,332 times and third another 2,214 to earn $10,458,183 in purses.
The 2016 and 2017 seasons for Cushing were his best years percentage-wise, finishing with a .315 and .327 Universal Trainer Rating (UTR) respectively. He had a career year for wins in 2006 when he scored 218 and his best season for earnings came a year later in 2007 when he made $1.225 million. Both of those years he was competing regularly at Yonkers and Saratoga.
Currently at Plainridge, Cushing has 17 wins in 127 starts with $154,516 in earnings.
In the feature trot at the Ridge on Thursday, One Swan For All (Wally Watson) got away sixth behind an up-front speed battle between French Moni (Greg Merton) and Pirate (Ivan Davies) then came third-over and three-wide around the fading Pirate at the three-quarters and around the entire last turn before turning on the speed down the lane to pass French Moni and win by three-lengths in 1:56.1.
Overlooked at 10-1, One Swan For All ($23.60) scored his second straight win for owner Joel Wheeler. Lisa Watson trains the winner.
Ron Cushing, Greg Merton and Joe Di Stefano all had driving doubles on Thursday.
Live racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Monday with post time set for 4 p.m.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)