Wings of Royalty (Chris Lems) won the featured $9,500 Winners Over/Open trotting event at Vernon Downs on Friday night (July 14).

The five-year-old son of RC Royalty flew to the front from the outside wing of the gate, and controlled fractions of :28.1, :57.1, and 1:24.3 before drawing off to a 1:52.4 victory, 5-1/4 lengths clear of Winding Hill (Jimmy Whittemore) who rallied for second. Lucid Thoughts (John MacDonald) finished third.

Wings of Royalty, owned by Raymond Campbell and trained by George Ducharme, won for the 17th time in his career and returned $2.70 to win.

MacDonald and Lems continue to slug it out atop the driving standings. Lems added three wins to his total tonight, also winning with Mittnage A Trois ($4.00) and Gimme The Cash ($3.70) to bring him within two wins of MacDonald’s 54 for the season. Whittemore is a distant third, with 28 wins to date this season.

Live racing returns to Vernon Downs on Saturday (July 15), with a nine-race card starting at 6:45 p.m.

(with files from Vernon Downs)