Mark MacDonald engineered a pair of impressive victories in the three-year-old pacing filly Gold Series season opener at Western Fair Raceway on Friday evening.
In the first $40,000 Gold Elimination, the Cambridge resident teamed up with Casie Coleman trainee Arts Star and gave the fan favourite a classic pocket steer to reach the wire in 1:56.2, three-quarters of a length in front of pacesetter St Lads Popcorn.
With regular reinsman Jason Brewer in the bike, 2008 division champion St Lads Popcorn carved out fractions of :27.4, :57.4 and 1:28 in her first appearance of the season, but could not hold off the late charge from Arts Star.
Lightly rated Pantecostal, owned by Mary Dolmage and Sure Gain Stable of Mitchell and Stephanie Horner of St. Marys, tailed the favourites around the London oval to finish third.
Coleman trains Arts Star for Steve Calhoun and Michael Lindley of Chatham and West Wins Stable of Cambridge. The Modern Art daughter finished fifth in an overnight event at Mohawk Racetrack on May 15 in preparation for Friday’s contest, and seems poised to continue in the style which earned her three wins, four seconds, one third and $185,800 in 11 starts as a two-year-old.
“It couldn’t have worked out any better,” said MacDonald in a post-race interview. “For her second start, I got a nice trip behind St Lads Popcorn, who is a super filly. We chased her all last year and couldn’t beat her so it was kind of nice to get up. The way the race worked it just turned into a sprint and she’s really crafty on the front end and she just sprinted by her.”
Also advancing out of the first elimination into next week’s $130,000 Gold Final was fourth-place finisher Grin Goddess.
In the second elimination MacDonald fired Not Enough straight to the front from Post 3 and never faced a challenge, rolling through fractions of :28.1, :58.1 and 1:26.1 en route to a 1:55.1 victory.
Mike Saftic and Northern Duchess drafted along behind the pacesetter into second for owner Karen Carroll of Shedden, and Fashion Week toughed it out along the outside to earn a well-earned third. Fourth-place finisher Windsong Filou also advanced to next Friday’s Gold Final.
A regular on the Grassroots scene last year, Not Enough earned her ticket into Friday’s test with an impressive 1:52.3 score at Mohawk Racetrack on May 8. The Grinfromeartoear filly is trained by Tracy Brainard for Bulletproof Enterprises of Boca Raton, Florida.
With a choice of two fillies to drive in next week’s final, MacDonald indicated that he will drive Arts Star.
“Well I’ve always done pretty good with Casie’s horses so its kind of hard to jump off hers. I told Steve before I’d drive his in London so I’m going to stick with that one. They’ve always been good to me, put a lot of money in my pocket.”
The talented three-year-old pacing fillies will return to Western Fair Raceway next Friday for the first $130,000 Gold Final of their season, on a night which also features the final of the track’s signature event, the Molson Pace for aged pacers.
To view Friday's results, click here.
(With files from OSS)