Italians sweep ADHC at Freehold

Freehold, NJ – It was an Italian pride day at Freehold Raceway on Saturday (1/21) as harness racing drivers Tony Beltrami and Joe Faraldo each won a heat of the American Harness Drivers Club Amateur (AHDC) trot series.

In the first heat, there was a lot of early action with Spree guided by Dante Scattolini leaving hard and making First Gunner with Robert Hechkoff work extremely hard to get the lead in a fast :28:3 quarter.

All Rise (Conway Hall), who also left and briefly tucked third wanted the lead, so Tony Beltrami sent his charge out and motoring entering the second turn and clearing the leg weary leader just past the half. The duo opened up a good eight lengths on the field going up the backside and they needed all of it as Finnick Odair with Melissa Arbia followed their bold move and Winneress, who won a leg of the series last week, mounted a furious late rush from behind all of them to be second, losing by only a length.

All Rise, a 6-year-old gelding, is owned by Tony Beltrami and trained by Edwin Quevedo. Sent off as odds on favorite, he returned $3.40 on the win end.

ALL RISE REPLAY

In the second heat, Joe Faraldo wasted no time fooling around and sent his trusty steed Grafenberg (Triumphant Caviar) to the lead. Clearing King Cast with Jim King Solomon pretty easily, Faraldo was able to rate a friendly opening half mile of 1:01:3.

Sensing pressure from Mouthpiece and Jacob Stillwell, Faraldo pressed on the gas putting away that first over bid and had plenty left to hold off a fast-closing Dark Pool with Tony Beltrami. King Cast held on for the show prize.

Grafenberg, a 5-year-old gelding, is owned by Triple D Stables and trained by Scott DiDomenico. The gelding sent his backers home with a hefty payout to close the afternoon card returning $25.00 to win.

GRAFENBERG REPLAY

There will be two more AHDC races next Saturday at Freehold.

For complete race results, click here.

by Tony Verruso, for the AHDC