The Year of the Milestone

With all the hysteria following Dave Palone going after the record for all-time dash winning driver, others aim to reach other milestones of their career.


Geo. Napolitano at Pocono

Over the last couple of months, drivers and trainers have been accomplishing several feats that make their name stand out among the rankings. Recently, George Napolitano Jr. racked his 5,000^th win at Harrah’s Philadelphia on June 17. On the training side of it, Mark Ford earned his 3,000^th win at Saratoga.

Other drivers that reached a milestone this year includes Yannick Gingras (4,000 wins), Tim Tetrick (7,000 wins), Anthony Morgan (14,000 wins) and Wally Hennessey (8,000 wins).

Ron Pierce moved up the standings to second in all-time earnings. With his recent victories in the Goodtimes and Mohawk Gold Cup, he passed Mike Lachance with career earnings of $186.06-million, as Lachance’s were $185.92-million. John Campbell is the all-time leader with $278.2-million.

Many drivers and trainers are approaching major milestones in their career. Driver Pat Berry is approaching his 3,000^th win. The Illinois native is currently nineteenth in the standings at the Big M, with three victories out of 153 starts.



Dave Palone doing the "Filion" to the
winners circle

Dave Palone has received a lot of attention from his bid to 15,181 wins (making him North America’s all-time dash winning driver). The fifty-year-old has finished on top of the standings at The Meadows a whopping 23 times in all three categories!

Herve Filion is the all-time dash leader until Dave passes him.

Listed below are other horseman that should reach a milestone by the end of the year:

Ron Burke- 3,000 training victories

Casie Coleman- 2,000 training victories

Greg Grismore- 6,000 driving victories

Roger Hammer- 2,000 training victories

Mark MacDonald- 5,000 driving victories

Paul MacDonell- 5,000 driving victories

Ervin Miller- 4,000 training victories

Julie Miller- 1,000 training victories

Brian Sears- 8,000 driving victories

We wish them the best of luck in marking their name as the best in the sport.

The Driver Myth- Dave Palone

This is part one of a several part series that I try to prove that you cannot make any money off of betting a driver and who better to start off with than Dave Palone.

The newly inducted hall of famer gets over bet at the Meadows in Meadow Lands Pennsylvania. Although he wins several times a night, the outcome might shock you. I followed Dave Palone at the Meadows every night he was there from July 27 to August 23, the last day he raced at the Meadows. For every horse he drove, we would bet $2.

Wednesday, July 27 was the first night of the one month project. It was also the most active week for Dave Palone. Palone had driven in 14 races that night. We would have bet $28 on him that night. At the end of the night, we had $70.20, a profit of $42.20. He had three drives on Thursday, July 28, with no winners, decreasing our profit to $36.20.He came back with 13 drives on the 29, returning $34.40. Since we bet $26 that night, we made a profit of $8.40, bringing the overall total up to $44.60. On July 30, Palone drove 11 horses, returning $14 to the bettors. Our overall profit dropped to $36.60. He drove 14 horses on the first day of August. His horses returned $22.20, making the overall profit drop to $30.80. Dave came back the very next day with 10 mounts. Overall, his horses returned $17.40, with the overall profit dropping to $28.20. Palone drove 12 horses on the final day of week one. His horses returned $23.80, with the overall profit dropping slightly to $28.

Week two was less active for Palone. He had three drives on August 4, with no winners. The overall profit dropped to $22. He returned four days later on August 8, driving 12 horses. They returned $19, making the overall profit drop to $17. He had 13 horses on August 9. They returned $27.60 and the profit increased slightly to $18.60.

Palone drove two days in the third week. On August 15, he had 15 drives. They returned $14.60 and the profit made a major drop to $3.20. He had 14 horses on August 16 and they returned $59.80. The profit made a huge increase to $35.

Palone drove a total of 45 horses in the final week of the project. On August 17, he drove 13 horses and they returned $3, making the profit drop to $12. On August 18, he drove 11 horses and returned $22.60 to the public. The overall profit went up to $12.60. Four days later, Palone drove 10 horses. They returned $10.80, decreasing the profit to $3.40. On the final night of this one month project, Palone drove 11 horses, returning $20.60 to the bettors. This means, the project showed that over a month period, your profit playing Dave Palone is $2.

Although you made a profit, this is a one month period. The outcome may change if you play him for two, three or four months. Dave Palone made you a profit of $2, but he won at least three, four or five times a night on short priced horses. If you also notice, we had the largest profit on July 29, with $44.60. From July 29 to August 15, the profit dropped a total of $41.40. This proves that Dave Palone was over bet during this period of time and most likely before the project started. In this one month period, Palone drove two bombs that paid at least $20. In part two, I will follow George Brennan at Yonkers Raceway to continue to prove my point. You cannot make money off of drivers.