A year ago, Bob Montgomery was sapped by a severe cold but still managed to prevail over 427 opponents and win $231,120 in the Horse Player World Series. This year, buoyed by good health and a monster Day 2, Montgomery has put himself in line for a repeat victory as the Day 2 leader in the 2019 renewal of the World Series.
Montgomery, a 55-year-old self-employed accountant from Ottawa, Ontario, is the clubhouse leader of 479 en route to what would be a $258,660 payout this year from a total prize pool of $646,650. He finished Day 1 in 61st place with 774 points, but recorded a Day 2-best score of 1,906 points to vault himself into first place. For the top Day-2 finish, Montgomery can already credit $8,621.15 on the assets side of his personal ledger thanks to the generous day-money payouts here at The Orleans.
Michael Lazarus, who was 7th after Day 1 with 1,192 points, added another 1,219 to his total to move into second place overall with 2,411.
Loyal Sprague, whose two entries finished Thursday in a four-way tie for the lead, currently resides in a tie for 3rd with himself with identical totals of 2,379.6 points. The other co-Day 1-leader, Michael Rosenthal, is tied with himself for 9th place with also-equal totals of 2,161.6.
Most of Day 2 had a similar feel to Day 1 with very few large prices lighting up the toteboard. But a flurry of late-day longshots, including first-time starter Hot Decision’s triumph ($41.60, $19.20) in the final contest race (the 8th at Santa Anita) sent shockwaves through both the overall and Day 2 leaderboards to get things where they stand now, heading into tomorrow’s third and final day of the venerable handicapping tournament at The Orleans in Las Vegas.
Rounding out the top 10 in the overall standings are Marc Behrend in 5th place (2,294.6 points), Mike Ferrozzo (2,266), Jon Lindo (2,265.6) and David Colohan (2,231,4).
Brandon Stauble is in 11th place with 2,124.2 points after having posted the second-highest Day 2 score, 1,639.6. He received a Day 2-only bonus of $4,311.85 for that performance.
Tomorrow’s action involves seven contest tracks: Gulfstream, Aqueduct, Laurel, Tampa Bay Downs, Oaklawn, Hawthorne and Santa Anita.