OLD MAN Series Starts like a Rocket!
The Old Man of the Mountains Series III – Race 1
A mile on the Firm Turf Course
$50,000
All horses, 8 years old and up, Non-Winners of THREE within the last year
I had mentioned in my preview that I thought that our host USA would contend in the first leg of the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN series III. This old handicapper almost had it right as the top three were correct but I missed out on our host being the winner. ! He was able to move into first place for the series and loosen the conditions for future races in the series. That may make for more top heavy entrants and leave the Sun Dial portion of our series a little tougher. PRESTO was able to capture the last place spot and take the early lead there. That is what makes this series so interesting. Now everyone is still eligible and some will be even with a win while others will have to wait out the host winning again if they want to get back in and gain points for the Old Man of the Mountain series Championship and garner all of the accolades that come with that. Certainly a nice thing to hang on your wall at the Old Horses Retirement Home!
USA looked like a USA Rocket that NASA launched!
Trainer RiverDance was quoted as saying, “I haven’t seen him take off like that since that first time we let him out in the pasture with the fillies.” I don’t know if the trainer was using some of his famous Geritol-based, Viagra-laced concoctions but whatever it was sure seemed to work! (Editors Note: The aforementioned “concoctions” were for USA and not for RiverDance himself!)
In the race itself, pre race favorite LEGADILLO sat back behind the winner who started the race like it was like it was buffet time at the Golden Corral and he wanted to be first in line. Jockey Gravina knew that the old guy would eventually run out of steam but it never came to pass. That left second for LEGADILLO and WHISPER outlasted the other runners in the race to the oxygen bar after coming from way back to finish third.
In a separate part of the race, in what we call the Sun Dial Standings, the race for last place is almost as coveted in the win in this series for AARP card holders. The winner of the Sun Dial Trophy is held in high regard back at the old folks horme. It’s always a lot of fun to see who contends. In the end, we had five horses that finished more than twenty lengths behind our winner but PRESTO wheezed and geezed his way to last place. He was followed for points by both LARIONOV and BRATTICUS who were both fading badly at the end and nearly got their walkers tangled up crossing the finish.
USA has probably opened up the series to even more contenders with the win. There are nine races left in the ten race series and lots of things can happen including quite a few heart attacks and strokes among the participants, so it should be interesting down the road. That’s what makes this series so much fun.. Stay tuned Race Fans!
Best of luck to all of these fine old guys and gals!
- The Leader Standings in the series:
- USA (RiverDance) 6 Points
- LEGADILLO (LuvsTheKey) 3 Points
- WHISPER (Be1stFarms) 1 Point
- Sun Dial Standings in the series:
- PRESTO (Ernieman) 6 Points
- LARIONOV (IrishMan) 3 Points
- BRATTICUS (TheFred) 1 Point
Good luck to all runners!
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