There’s no point in telling 70-year-old Gerry Longo to slow down.
Longo has been running on all cylinders since his days as a track and football star on his high school teams in southern California. If Wednesday at Running Aces was any indication, Longo has no intention of slowing down!
Longo’s long and storied harness racing career is almost a half-century old. He has won 2,718 races as a driver and 628 since they started keeping trainers statistics in 1991.
Longo scored a hat trick on Running Aces’ Wednesday (September 9) program to bring his 2015 win total to 52 in 52 nights at the Minnesota track this season. The Wednesday wins moved Longo into fourth place in the local dash derby. All three of Longo’s wins were from his own 10-horse stable, which has produced 31 wins at Running Aces in the last three months, good for purse earnings of $115,000.
Kiss On The Lips, a five-year-old Dontgetinmyway mare owned by Longo, captured the featured $9,600 Fillies and Mares Open Pace with a narrow 1:54.3 score over Part Time Lady (Steve Wiseman) and Dream Roll (Nick Roland). Longo used a perfect pocket trip to full advantage and zoomed his winning charge up the passing lane for Kiss On The Lips’ fourth seasonal victory and second at the top distaff level.
Longo also captured a $6,600 conditioned pace with Place At The Beach, a recent private purchase of his who has now reeled off five consecutive wins and stamped herself as one of the favourites for the $11,000 Minnesota State Championship for older state-bred mares on Saturday (September 12). The five-year-old daughter of Place To Be topped Captiva Bounty (Brian Detgen) and High Bet Hanover (Tim Maier).
Midnight Destroyer, a bottom claimer, was Longo’s other winner.
Over $200,000 in purses will be awarded on the closing night program at Running Aces on Saturday. The card will feature eight $21,000 championship races for juveniles and a trio of $11,000 races for the best older Minnesota-breds at the meet.
(Running Aces)