WEST
GETS BACK ON WINNING TRACK AND DEFEATS TEAM EAST AT 4TH
ANNUAL EAST-WEST AMATEUR CHALLENGE
Monday, April 27, 2009 - Contact: David Siegel
(dsiegel@axcis.com)
After being defeated in 2008, The Left Coasters
defeated the Billings Brigaders, 151-98 over the two-night,
seven race series at the East-West Amateur Challenge at
Cal-Expo. Steve “Mr. Sacramento” Chambers, summed it all up
when he said, “while I am happy that our team held their
own, I cannot feel anything but like everyone came out a
winner; this is what amateur racing is all about”. The
races were all competitive, and the desire for each driver
to win was only exceeded by the sportsmanship on the track
and camaraderie that occurred off the track.
On Saturday morning and afternoon, Team East was treated to
a tour of the State Capitol, Old Town Sacramento, and lunch
on a River Boat in “Old Sac”.
The first evening of competition resulted in a comfortable
lead for team West. Dave Siegel captured the first two
races winning with Outlaws Song N Dance and Red Star Wild
One. Tim Miller came back in the third leg with a longshot
($33) victory with SA Sunset. Sue Boyce put the
Californians well ahead in points in the last leg of the
evening driving Rama Hanover ($16.80) to a one-length
victory. At the end of the first evening, the west had a
commanding 83-55 point advantage.
On Saturday night, the long-shots continued to reward their
backers as Sue Boyce won her second of two wins guiding
Wicked Tony ($36.40) from last to first in the 5th leg of
the two-night challenge. Dave Siegel widened the West’s
lead rating Fearless Sahbra to his third win of the event
(and 100th of his career). In the 7th and final leg of the
event, Tim Miller notched his second win with Day Tripper
giving the East renewed enthusiasm for coming back in 2010.
Detailed results, charts and race replays can be found on
the host's California Amateur Driving Club (CADC) web site
at:
http://www.thecadc.com/standings_eastwest09.html
im Miller, Dave Offenberg, Dave Drew and Larry Farley, all
top-10 Billings Drivers from their respective divisions in
2008 represented Team East. The Golden Staters were Sue
Boyce, Dave Siegel, Chris Hernandez and Rick Bertrand. 27
different Cal-Expo trainers entered 53 horses in the seven
race series.
Team East brought gifts commemorating the event for the
participating drivers, trainers and racing secretaries. In
addition, through the generosity of the Billings
organization and the Cal-Expo, purses were augmented by
about 50%. Assistant racing secretary Joe Nefsky commented
that the handle on the amateur races was at or above par
with the other races and he was quite satisfied with the
monies and interest generated by the Challenge series. |
