By John Sacco

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

Experience in anything can go a long way.

In harness racing, though, much of it has to do with the horse and its abilities and speed.

Chris Page not only has the experience of driving in The Adios Pace final but winning one.

Page drove Bythemissal to victory in 2022.

He’s back today to try again to drive a Ron Burke trained 3-year-old pacer to Adios glory.

Page will drive Rick Wink, another Burke conditioned pacer. He will leave from post No. 2 and while almost exclusively racing in Ohio, has won four-of-five races this season and 12-of-14 lifetime. He has earned $386,250.

Rick Wink placed third in last week’s Adios elimination race.

“It’s a similar situation,” Page said, comparing 2022 with this year. “Hopefully, we can get the same outcome. Just because I won this before, I don’t think it has any advantages. Each horse drives different and each race plays out a little bit different.”

Page said Rick Wink adding Lasix should make a positive impact

“He made a big move last week and then late, he just kind of like evened out, so that’s kind of like the tell-tale sign of a horse who might need the addition of the Lasix medication. They scoped him and found out that was the case. That’s a plus and we got a good draw.

“I really like where we are. It’s all systems go.”

All in the Family

The seventh race on The Adios day race card – the Dwane Parker Arden Downs 3-year-old Filly Trot – will feature the Parker-Bolon families.

Norm Parker – The late Dwane Parker’s son – trains Backswing.

Rodney Bolon will drive and Kyle Bolon will drive Dianne Hanover. They are Dwane Parker’s son-in-law and grandson, respectively. The horse’s owner, Sally Bolon, is his daughter.

The Parker Family traditionally held a big celebration/picnic/party on the hill opposite the grandstand at The Meadows on Adios day.

However, Sally and Norm Parker said with the passing of their mother, Bobbie shortly after last year’s Adios, the tradition has ended.

Sally plans to sit on that same hill with her sister, Kathy, just watching the races. Norm has work to do. He is sure to be emotional.

That’s tied to another part of the race.

Wild Wild Western, a standout pacer for several years, will lead the field for Race 7 onto the track. It will mark his final appearance on The Meadows’ 5/8-mile oval. The 9-year-old stallion last raced in November. The decision was recently made to retire him from racing.  The son of Western Ideal currently stands at stud at Lindwood Farm in Greensburg, where he has been breeding mares part-time for the past three years while continuing to race. His first crop is now 2-year-olds, and one of that select group of first-year horses is Western Raptor, who has already taken a mark of 1:52.4 and has won two of his three races.

Wild Wild Western retires as one of the top Open pacers in recent Meadows’ history, capturing 45 of 132 (.341 winning percentage) races with a mark of 1:48 and earnings of more than $723,000.  The Meadows’ Mike Wilder drove Wild Wild Western to 31 of his victories. 

Western Raptor will compete in Race 10 in the “Tyler B” $69,982 Pennsylvania Sire Stake 2-year-old Colt and Gelding Pace.

“(Wild Wild Western) is the nicest all-around horse I’ve ever trained,” said Norm Parker. “From manners to racing to everything.  He is just a consistent, honest horse.  In fact, the best compliment I’ve ever gotten about him came from Ron Burke. When Wild Wild Western was at the top of his game in the Open pace, Ronnie said that he brought more than a dozen horses in here to try to knock him off the top, and he couldn’t do it.  He said Western was like the Foiled Again of The Meadows.

“I’ll get emotional over the family thing,” Parker said. “It’s hard anytime a horse leaves you. But it’ll be a joyous kind of emotion. I think just knowing how special it was training him. The one other thing too is that his son is racing. We didn’t have a very good race last week but that’s horse racing and you just figure it out and move on. I mean it’s going to be a busy day but it will be an exciting day.”