Leading driver at Pokie and Harrahs

[Ray2000]

George Napolitano

PHL Starts 898 21% Win, -19% ROi
PCD Starts 1178 22% Win, -14% ROI

Has he always been this good?????? :)

[cmp92]

I've always thought of George Nap being a driver that will do whatever it takes to get a horse across the wire first.

[RaceTrackDaddy]

Ray:

Do you recall Walter Case Jr when he raced, especially that year when he won over 1,000 races at Yonkers?

Georgie Nap Jr races in the same manner (though with less leg action). Although he has had his troubles in the sport and some of his owners& trainers have less than an unblemished record of racing, he does give it his all on the track. He loves to win.

He seemed to be the 2nd best driver in Pennsylvania each year for more than a decade now (being 2nd to Dave Palone). He rarely travels west out to the Meadows and to be perfectly candid, I can't tell you the last time he got around the Mea's oval. It had to be one of those drivers championships. Think he was in the year that Case failed to come on down from Northfield. Other than that, we never see him here.

rtd

[Ray2000]

Bobby

I never got to see Case drive but I'm familiar with his past problems.... Domestic violence of the nth degree. If the NFL ran harness he might still be driving.

Anthony and George Napolitano have been killing me lately, sometimes with triple digit winners. Guess I should be rating them higher...

[RaceTrackDaddy]

Bobby

I never got to see Case drive but I'm familiar with his past problems.... Domestic violence of the nth degree. If the NFL ran harness he might still be driving.

Anthony and George Napolitano have been killing me lately, sometimes with triple digit winners. Guess I should be rating them higher...


There dad, George Sr was at Pompano when I first saw both Anthony and Nap Jr before they shipped north. Very talented and very aggressive in their drives.

AS to Case when he was driving at YR, do you recall when Patsy Rapone was one of the leading drivers at the Meadows? There was a race where Patsy tried to drive a horse into a hole in the stretch that wasn't there. He basically forced his way through a small space between to fighting rivals for the lead and won the race without care of his body or the horses' body. In a word, "reckless" is probably the best way to describe all three of those drivers. Their will to win is the only thing that matters.

Anthony is not as aggressive as Case or his brother. In my memory, he seemed to be the best at handicapping a race and would place his horse in the position to win more often that both Case and Nap Jr. Patsy could just flat out drive just on basic instinct. I have share a story regarding Patsy as I don't believe I ever posted it here.

Back in the day when I was working at the Meadows I got a driver out of trouble when he caught a guy (who happened to be a friend of mine) hitting on his wife. The driver was Dale Mangan. I heard he had trouble earlier in the day when he was on the phone with the judges on an inquiry involving him and he cursed at them. So I knew he didn't need any more trouble with fighting in the Adios Room. I hustled him through the kitchen to the bottom of the grandstand so he avoided all the security guards that were on their way down the outside steps from the grandstand. In event he was right under their feet for a second but they did not see or know he was there getting away.

Dale became a friend of mine and I would help him during the day with his five horse stable and then head over to the Adios and work the rest of the day as a waiter. One of the horses in his stable (who would hide his bile movement each day in a different part of the stall and cover it up with hay making my day one of search for the prize). That horses name was Insko Minbar. Dale was having trouble getting Insky to the winner's circle. Patsy was at the barn as he and Dale were close friends. Patsy said I know how to get Insky home, put me up. Dale had nothing to lose and for the next start Dale got off and named Patsy to drive.

The day of the race I got called to work in the clubhouse so I had to send my money with a friend to bet Insky and the tellers somehow found out that Insky was live. Instead of the 10/1 odds, the tellers made him around 2/1 on the post parade. He drifted up to 5/1 at the start of the race. Patsy left to front and then let the speed merchant in the race have the lead. He waiting until the top of the backstretch when the driver of the speed merchant was trying to back down the 3rd qtr and Patsy got by and never looked back. Patsy was a hell of a driver and at times the most aggressive driver at the Meadows. Think I bet $20 to win on him. My friend never came to the clubhouse with my money as he keyed the horse in the tri and cash nice and went home to drop off his cash. He paid me at the Meadow Inn or was it called Jiggs then, it was around the time the owner changed hands.

Sorry to say that both Dale and Patsy have passed on for some time now. God Bless both of their souls.

Sorry for the length of this post, just got me recalling the days of my youth and could not stop.

[RaceTrackDaddy]

Been so many years that I was trying to recall all of the five horses that I worked with during the time of Insko and came up short one horse. Trotwood Randy was the one I was going to buy but he had an injury that screwed his balance and the sale was a no go. Then there was a huge horse that loved pacing on the lead. Hank Butler became a lead out horse once his racing days were over. He was a gentle monster that was really a baby to handle. Then there was Insko Minbar and in the last stall, I can't recall that one's name. He raced against Czar Direct back then and for the life of me can't come up with his name. Then out in the field (where she raced from the field) was Plum Run Margie. She was a handful to catch and then lead her back from Roy Davis turn out field on Johnson road to the backside of the Meadows. If anyone reading this recalls the horse that faced and lost most times to Bill Fry's Czar Direct, please post up, I am having a senor moment..lol