Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Ideal Weather Takes Strada Memorial

April 26, 2008

Ideal Weather rallied off a pocket trip to win the $75,000 Thomas Strada Memorial, a race marred by a minor accident, on Saturday night at the Meadowlands. Driver Yannick Gingras made an early bid with Ideal Weather before yielding to Stylish Solution in a brisk 54.1 half. Ideal Weather easily brushed past the tiring leader in the stretch and held off Enhance The Night for a 1 ?-length victory in 1:50.4. She paid $11.40 to win the fifth race.

The accident occurred as the field approached the final turn. Artcotic, sitting second over, stumbled and unseated driver Brian Sears, causing Guestimate and Ron Pierce to crash into her from behind. KG Katriona and John Campell, who were to Artcotic's inside, were also tangled up in the incident. The three reinsmen were cleared to driver the remainder of the Saturday card. All three mares were treated for varying degrees of lacerations and reported to be in stable condition.

Trained by the father-and-son team of Ron and Mickey Burke, Ideal Weather has now won 19 of 63 career starts and $640,000.

"Ron [Burke] is always looking for races and he did a good job finding this race for her," said winning driver Yannick Gingras. "That was definitely an easier spot than the Betsy Ross [a stakes race at Harrah's Chester] would have been tomorrow. She's come a long way from her 2-year-old season. They've done a tremendous job with her, managing her. She's a very, very nice mare. She'll be around all year. You'll see her in all the big races."

It was the fourth running of the memorial race created by the family and friends of Thomas Strada, an avid harness racing fan killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Strada, 41, was a vice president on the corporate bond desk at Cantor Fitzgerald. He shared his love of harness racing with his wife, Terry, whose father was late Hall of Fame horseman George Sholty.