Leading driver Mike Merton padded his lead over his contemporaries by winning five races on Monday at Monticello Raceway.
Merton started the five-bagger in Race 3 aboard Flight of The Kiwi, who benefited from a pocket trip behind pace setter Bob N Tony in 2:02.1 to earn his fourth win of the year for trainer Owen Eiler, Jr. Merton used the same strategy with Too Much Sun, who overtook Sweet Ginger to win by two lengths in 1:56, earning a season time badge. Merton’s third consecutive win was with the Ralph Silvestri III trained Smartys Filly, who started from Post 3 and took the overland route to win by two lengths in 1:56.2.
After an action-packed Sunday (Jan. 10) featuring a $172,173 Pick-5 pool, Pompano Park will follow that with twin $30,000 guaranteed pools in their two Pick-4 wagers during a 13-race extravaganza.
The Sunday Pick-5, with a generous carryover of $24,000 plus, attracted $148,147 in new wagering and, thanks to the heroics of 22-year-old Samuel King, 646 winning tickets resulted in a generous payday of $216.20 for a 50-cent ticket featuring three odds-on favourites, one 5-2 chance and one lone outsider at 13-1. Two of these odds-on favourites were piloted by 22-year-old Samuel King, who, with seven wins coming into Sunday night, posted his first driving double in a pair of Florida Amateur Driving events.