To be the best, you have to beat Franks Best, and that's not happening right now
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Winners Over trotters, racing for a purse of $4,500, were featured at Cal Expo on Friday night (April 6), on which Franks Best changed tactics and won for the 24th time in his career.
Leaving from his assigned post five in the field of five, did driver Lemoyne Svendsen eye the pocket an eighth of a mile past the start?
"James [Kennedy] was taking a hold so much with Putoneonnetformom that I couldn't get in there because it was so tight," stated Svendsen. "So I said, 'okay, let's go.'"
Clearing to the front a good ways after 3/16ths of a mile into a :30 opening quarter, did the lead for the usually closing Franks Best concern Svendsen?
"I didn't mind the spot I was in at that time because 'Frankie' has been so good that I thought he might do well on the front."
Trotting an easy second quarter while reaching the half-mile juncture, timed in :59.4, Franks Best proceeded to trot an effortless third quarter, while getting his earplugs popped at the three-quarter mile marker, timed in 1:28.4.
"I had been setting a nice even pace, but at the three-quarters, I was just trying to gradually pick up speed with him. When I popped the earplugs, he took off, but with Putoneonnetformom on my back, I knew it was going to be a dash for the house."
Accelerating to the head of the lane, but with the pocket-sitting Putoneonnetformom just one and a half lengths back, Franks Best couldn't put his archrival away at the seven-eighths mile station, thus Svendsen went to work, yet was confident.
"At that point I kind of thought 'Frankie' was going to hold him because he had his head down trotting and he was trotting hard."
With Putoneonnetformom now creeping closer with a sixteenth of a mile to go, Franks Best had a message for his opponent.
"'Frankie' said, 'no, no, no, you're not going by,' and he didn't."
Only under hand urging in the last sixteenth of a mile, the five-year-old held on by a head. Bred, owned and trained by Bob Johnson, the gelding won ($4) in 1:56.4, a lifetime best. Putoneonnetformom was second best and Giles L S Hanover (Steve Wiseman) finished four lengths farther back in third.
"That little horse was just unbelievable tonight. He's just a trotting machine," finished Svendsen.
(Cal Expo)