Scott Lake records 5,000 wins

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Laurel, MD (Sports Network) - Veteran trainer Scott Lake needed one win going into Wednesday's program at Laurel Park to get to career victory 5,000. He accomplished the feat by winning the day's first race.

Lake saddled Communicator to win the opening race on Laurel's Wednesday card and become the sixth trainer in North American history to win 5,000 races.

"We are really proud of what the barn has accomplished," said Lake after reaching the milestone. "We owe it to all the owners, horses and my help. What is really cool is that we did our 3,000th at Philly (Philadelphia Park), the 4000th at Penn National and the 5,000th here. Those are the three places we did most of the winning."

The Harrisburg, PA native joins Dale Baird (9,445), Jack Van Berg (6,405), King Leatherbury (6,313), Jerry Hollendorfer (5,830) and Steve Asmussen (5,684) as the only trainers with at least 5,000 victories.

One race later Lake notched win 5,001 by claiming the second race at Laurel with Flight to Eden. Jockey Malcolm Franklin was the winning rider for both races.

With the two wins on Wednesday, Lake this year has 191 victories from 867 starters with more than $3.9 million in earnings. In his 20-year career he has started 22,235 horses for better than $92.5 million.