Driver Sylvain Filion dominated Woodbine Racetrack's Saturday night card, winning half of the evening's 10 races, including the featured $34,000 Preferred Pace.
Filion catch-drove Nickle Bag in the Preferred and inherited the victory when the initial first-place finisher, Avatartist, was set back to fifth after a judges' inquiry.
Avatartist's placing was due to interference he caused when crossing to command at the start of the race over Camaes Fellow. Leaving to the outside of Camaes Fellow while avoiding the commotion, Nickle Bag pressed on to take over the lead past the :26.4 opening quarter with 6-5 favourite Ultimate Beachboy left parked out and uncovered before eventually finding an opening to tuck into third.
Nickle Bag continued to lead the field past the half in :55.1 and three-quarters in 1:23.3. Ultimate Beachboy began to edge out again at the third quarter mark, but was not a threat in the stretch. Avatartist was pulled from the pocket down the lane and he did overtake Nickle Bag to reach the wire first in 1:51.1, but was placed fifth by the racing judges. Nickle Bag was promoted to first-place with his mile time clocked in 1:51.2. Summer Camp edged out Sing For Me George and Camaes Fellow in a photo for the remaining top spots.
Nickle Bag is trained by Shawn Robinson and owned by Linda Loyens of Denfield, Ont. and her brother-in-law Harry Loyens of Ilderton, Ont. The five-year-old son of Rocknroll Hanover has finished no worse than second in his last six Preferred starts and has banked $78,200 in purses already this year.
He paid $6.40 to win as the 2-1 second choice.
The victory was one of five on the 10-race card for Filion and came amidst a four-race win streak in the sixth through ninth dashes that included wins by Power Move ($3.50) for 2014 Trainer of the Year Richard Moreau; Murray Brethour's millionaire pacer Kindly Poet ($61.30), who earned his second straight win as a 12-year-old and 50th career victory; and Urbana Bayama ($7.80) for Stephane Larocque. Filion also won the opener with the Moreau-trained Hit And Giggle A ($4.10).
Filion now has a nine-win lead over Trevor Henry in Woodbine's 2015 driver standings, with his win count climbing to 43.
Simon Allard concluded a driving triple with a 30-1 win aboard Push Back in the 10th race finale. Despite the upset, there were multiple winning tickets for the Jackpot Hi 5, prompting a carryover of $454,702.71 into Monday's wager.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Racetrack.