Mark Herschberger Grand-Slam at Freehold Saturday

Posted 187 days

Rising star at Freehold, Mark Herschberger, visited the winner’s circle four times on the 12-race Saturday, May 18 program.

He got his first win in race two where he took advantage of a perfect pocket trip and snuck up the rail to win with Pack Your Bags for Joe Gulotta.

In race four, Herschberger snuck up the rail in the stretch to win again with the lone mare in a field of horses and geldings, Lazarus Girl (trained by Maria Reid) at a price of 7-1. This kicked off a streak of three wins in a row for the 29-year-old driver.

In the following race five, Herschberger continued the strategy that had been working for him so far today which was to once again make a late move up the rail to sneak passed his competitors for the win. This time, he got up by a nose over the 1-5 favorite (who was later taken down to seventh due to interference in the first turn) with his 28-1 mount, Gaius Crastinus for trainer John Novello. A win bet paid $58.00. This upset many bettors’ early pick-4 tickets which led to a $7,222.72 carryover into the late pick-4 where a winning $1 ticket paid $2,178.20.

Herschberger completed the three-race win streak and the driving grand-slam with another move up the rail to win race six with 13-1 shot, Stabler for trainer Mike Rizzo.

The favorites did not have much success this weekend at Freehold; only two out of nine winners on the Friday (May 17) card were favorites and only three out of today’s twelve winners. The $0.50 pick-5 will have a $2,819.19 into Friday (May 24) which will be the second-to-last day of racing at Freehold before the track closes for its summer break. Saturday (May 25) will be the final race day before the break. Post time for both days is 12:30pm. Racing will resume starting on August 23, 2024.