Freehold Raceway will wrap up the 2021 racing season on Friday (Dec. 31) with an 11-race card, featuring the Free-Old Pace, restricted to horses aged 11 years old and older.
This year's Free-Old Pace marks the final career starts for 14-year-olds Bolder and Statesman N.
Bolder drew post position one for owner Comeback Stables and trainer Frank Kero. Bolder has won 36 times from 319 starts, with earnings of $301,562. He's won at least one race every year since 2009, with the exception of 2016, when he made just two starts. He started racing on the east coast in early 2010 and has made the majority of his starts at Freehold, the Meadowlands and Yonkers Raceway. This year, Bolder won four times from 39 starts and has earned more than $22,000. Jack Pelling will be in the bike on Friday.
Statesman N drew post position five for owner/trainer Yogi Sheridan. He's won 63 times in his career, including 54 victories in North America, earning $981,262 in the process. Since coming to North America in 2013, he's won at least once race every year. He's remained in good form this year, winning nine races from 27 starts. Four of those wins have come at Freehold. Joe Bongirono has the drive; his sister, Jenn, campaigned Statesman N from February 2019 to March 2020.
The field also consists of three 13-year-olds, Atomic Rei for trainer Paul Fusco, Peter Pumpkineater, trained by Bruce Lauer, and Texican N, trained by Karen Garland, along with 12-year-olds So Take That for trainer Alex Goldin and Gypsy Leather, trained by Edwin Quevedo.
The Free-Old Pace is scheduled as the ninth race, with a listed post time of 3:10 p.m.
Going into the last day of the season, Austin Siegelman has the 2021 driving title wrapped up. He's won 167 races this year from 759 drives, including 63 at the summer/fall meet.
The 2021 trainer's race is going to come down to the last day. Izzy Estrada currently has the lead with 30 wins. He has one entry, Eva Dairpet Fr, in the eighth race. Edwin Quevedo is in second place with 28 wins and he has three entries on the card. John Urbanski is in third place with 27 victories. He'll send out six horses on Friday.
During the summer/fall meet, Brandon Mongiello has the most training wins, with 18.
The first race at Freehold on Friday is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
(With files from Freehold Raceway)