Write Me A Rose lived up to the heavy-favourite billing to win Saturday’s (April 13) first leg of the Canadian Graduate Series at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Headlining a field of six for the $25,000 opening leg, the second race of the evening, Write Me A Rose brushed to the lead in the second quarter from third and never looked back, kicking home in :26.1 to win in 1:52 for driver Doug McNair and trainer Kyle Fellows. Write Me A Rose finished a length and a quarter better than No Control, while Speaker Of Peace was third and Nightime Dancer fourth.
A homebred for Windermere Stable LLC, Write Me A Rose is now two-for-three this season and has career numbers of eight wins and more than $400,000 in earnings.
Write Me A Rose paid $2.30 to win.
The Graduate Series continues next weekend with leg two for the pace, mare pace and trot divisions. Each event features three preliminary legs ahead of the finals on May 4.
The evening's ninth race was the Preferred 2 Pace, offering the richest purse of the night at $32,000. Emmetts Buddy posted a 13-1 upset thanks to a tactical drive by Tyler Borth.
Emmetts Buddy took advantage of post two to secure the four-hole in the early going as Sometime Somehwere (James MacDonald) led the field to the opening quarter in :27. Whichwaytothebeach, the 1-2 favourite, came away third before being pointed to the lead by Sylvain Filion on the backstretch and leading at the half in :54.3.
As Whichwaytothebeach escorted his seven rivals to three-quarters in 1:23, Jabberwocky (Louis-Philippe Roy) came first over, giving cover to Emmetts Buddy, who was able to tip off that cover in the stretch and pass Jabberwocky to beat that foe by a neck in 1:50, with Whichwaytothebeach third. Sometime Somewhere faded to sixth.
The five-year-old brown gelding by In The Irons out of the Shark Gesture mare Logicallyinclined paid $29.60 to win.
Michael Kwietniowski trains the gelding for breeder and owner Arthur Rey of St. Claude, Man.
During Saturday night’s card, eight-year-old pacing mare Gias Surreal pick up her 36th career victory to push over $1 million in lifetime earnings.
Trained by Don Lindsey, Gias Surreal entered Saturday’s card just less than $7,000 away from $1 million. The So Surreal-Nancy Irene mare showed her back class, coming first up and then digging in down the lane to prevail in a tight photo for driver Bob McClure. The victory in the $24,000 event, contested as race three on the night, was the first of the season from nine starts for the successful mare.
Gias Surreal, who has raced in the sport’s biggest races for pacing mares, is owned by James Graham, Edward Peron and Lee Winters.
Live harness racing continues Monday evening at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Post time is 7:10 p.m.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Standardbred Canada and Woodbine)