A winning effort at Woodbine Racetrack on Monday evening for sophomore pacer Triple Major was long overdue, and it helped justify why his connections have kept him eligible to the nation’s richest harness race of the season

.

The strapping son of Art Major-Triple Gem, who is listed at 80-1 in Trot Magazine's 2010 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book, steamrolled over his rivals by close to seven lengths winning in a career-best clocking of 1:50.4 – a big step in the right direction for the Bill Companion trainee.

Anthony MacDonald made multiple moves in the mile with Triple Major en route to the impressive effort, and in doing so it has to give the partnership of the Common Sense Stable, Kor Stable Limited and Blair Corbeil renewed optimism after the pacer had struggled in some of his previous outings.

The colt won two of his six starts as a rookie including a 1:53 triumph at Mohawk Racetrack last September, but prior to Monday’s win the pacer was winless in his first five starts of the 2010 campaign. Purchased for $22,000 out of the 2008 Harrisburg Yearling Sale, Triple Major has banked more than $26,000 to date.

In the very next race, Rock Me Please finished a bang-up second in a conditioned assignment at Woodbine as he continues his quest to compete in Canada’s biggest dance of the season for three-year-old pacers.

The son of Rocknroll Hanover-Please Me Please, who is listed at 38-1 in Trot Magazine's 2010 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book, was on the lead through middle panels of :55.3 and 1:24.1 before being out-sprinted to the wire by Touch The Rock. That colt stopped the clock in 1:50.4, with Rock Me Please pacing his own mile in 1:51.1.

Steve Condren, who mapped out a 1:52.1 victory for the Bob McIntosh trainee in last week’s first start off the bench, was behind the colt once again. The career winner of $201,207 is a homebred owned by Sue Grange’s Lothlorien of Cheltenham, ON.

To view Monday’s results, click here.