Harvest Winners Anchor Mitchell Triple
Chantal Mitchell enjoyed a training triple on Friday night (Nov. 12) at Woodbine Mohawk Park, anchored by a pair of winners in the second leg of the Ontario Sired Harvest Series.
Favourites dominated the second leg of the Harvest Series, which was comprised of $17,000 divisions -- two for the trotters and a pair for the pacers. The series is for Ontario-sired three-year-old colts and geldings that are non-winners of $30,000 in 2021 as of September 30.
Mitchell sent out a winner from each gait including trotter Emerald Wings and pacer Control Heaven then capped off a perfect night with another victory courtesy of Tom Hill's homebred three-year-old pacing filly Awesome Hill ($2.70), driven by Doug McNair, in the 10th race finale.
Trotters kicked off the Harvest action with the Rene Dion-trained Mystic ($3.60) scoring his second series win in a 6-1/2-length romp with Sylvain Filion along for the ride.
Mystic carved out fractions of :28.2, :57.4 and 1:27.1 en route to a 1:56.1 victory over the 'good' track to follow up on his 1:55.3 career-best effort in last week's opening leg. Urntrouble Hanover (Louis-Philippe Roy), who was also a winner in round one, and Storm Trotter (Trevor Henry) completed the top three finish order.
Now four-for-10 this year after a winless freshman campaign, the Kadabra-Mystical Oaks gelding has banked $95,849 lifetime. He is owned by S&R Racing Stable of Acton, Ont.
Doug Millard's homebred Emerald Wings ($3.80) bested the second set of trotters by 5-1/4 lengths and took a new mark of 1:56.3.
After following in third early on, the Mitchell trainee blew by the tempo-setting Wickenburgh (:28.2, :57.4, 1:27) at the top of the lane for driver James MacDonald. Awordly Goodtimes (Jonathan Drury) rallied for second and Wheeling In Cash (Robert Shepherd) edged out Wickenburgh to show.
Unraced as a two-year-old, the Archangel-Emerald Myway gelding picked up his second victory from 16 starts and lifted his bankroll to $44,850. He was a closing fourth to Mystic during the opening round of the series.
In the first pacing division, Take A Gamble ($4.40) cruised to a 4-3/4 length victory in 1:52.4 over the 'good' going, just one-fifth of a second off his lifetime mark set last week in the opening leg.
Driver Trevor Henry put the Shawn Steacy pupil on the point through fractions of :27.1, :56.4 and 1:25.1. He was up by nearly seven lengths at the head of the stretch and could not be caught despite a big rally from the backfield by a four-wide Hesincontrol (Lyle MacArthur), who settled for second. Flash Cube (Guy Gagnon) finished more than 10 lengths in arrears off a pocket trip.
The Bettors Delight-Bad Sister gelding has now won three of 17 starts in his debut season while banking $53,370 for owner Stephen Klunowski of North York, Ont.
Control Heaven ($2.60) was also a repeat winner in the pacing preliminaries with a 1:54.1 triumph on the front-end for Mitchell and Millard, who bred and co-owns with Mitchell Di Cenzo and Gold Standard Equine.
Louis-Philippe Roy guided Control Heaven though panels of :27, :57.1 and 1:26.2 before widening his lead to 2-1/4 lengths down the stretch. Kount Blaster (Jonathan Drury) advanced first-up to finish second, edging out Four Finger Floyd (Trevor Henry) and Big Chic Magney (Jody Jamieson), who ended in a dead-heat for third.
A one-time winner as a freshman, the Control The Moment-Somewhereinheaven gelding has won three of his 18 starts this year while lifting his bankroll to nearly $100,000.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park