Favourites delivered in front-end fashion on Tuesday, May 13 in both $11,500 Preferreds at The Raceway at Western Fair District, with Royalty Beer scoring in the feature trot while It Takes Two secured to top-level pace.

Royalty Beer (pictured above) and driver Samuel Fillion left from post five as the 3-5 favourite in the trotting feature. Royalty Beer wasted little time getting the lead, rocketing to the top off the gate before reaching the quarter pole in :28.1. Royalty Beer slowed to the half in :59.1 before scooting away by 4-1/2 on the way to three-quarters in 1:27.1 while Mercutio (Scott Young) battled to the outside of Gold Edition (J Harris) for second. 

Mercutio moved into a clear second and cut the margin down to 2-1/2 lengths turning for home in pursuit of Royalty Beer. However, Royalty Beer would not be caught, extending his lead once more on the wire to 3-1/4 lengths to score over Mercutio in 1:57. Johnny Buckshot (Tyler Borth) finished third, seven lengths behind the victor.

A winner in eight of 14 starts on the year, including three of his last four, Royalty Beer is trained and co-owned by Jean-Francois Maguire along with breeder Ecuries Maguire Inc. The six-year-old gelded son of Royalty For Life-Beer Maggs is now a 26-time career winner, having banked $386,117 lifetime.

The Preferred Pace immediately followed, where It Takes Two and driver Lorne House deployed the same tactics to score as the 2-1 choice.

Leaving from post two, It Takes Two powered to the top on the first turn, leading the field of eight to the quarter in :29. Docsphillycheese (Garrett Rooney) started the outer flow early, moving to the leader's wheel at the half in :59.2 before the two continued to battle to three-quarters in 1:28.

The slugfest continued on the final turn, where It Takes Two turned for home with a length advantage. It Takes Two opened up from there, scoring by 1-1/2 lengths over the overland Docsphillycheese in 1:56.2. Leave It To Luther (Jason Ryan) held for show at 36-1.

The victory was the third in 15 seasonal tries for It Takes Two, who is trained by Scott McNiven for owners Kimberly McNiven and Bradley Douglas. The homebred son of Artspeak-Shellace is a 24-time career winner with $196,656 in career earnings.

In addition to both Preferreds, the 12-pack of Tuesday action also had six divisions of the London Classic Sale Series on the card.

There were three divisions each for male trotters and pacers for Ontario-sired four-year-olds who were non-winners of $10,000 lifetime as of March 1.

The fastest of the pacing divisions came in the third and final division as Silverwalls ($4.70) stopped the timer in 1:56. Trained by Dennis Morrissey and driven by Garrett Rooney, Silverwalls led at every station through fractions of :28, :57.3 and 1:27.1 before fending off the favoured SOS Sports Bet by a half-length to score in 1:56.

The first two divisions for pacers went to Strongman Hanover (Daryl Thiessen, $2.40) in 1:57.2 for trainer Joshua McKibbin and Late For Coffee (Jason Ryan, $19.10) in 2:01.3 for trainer Duane Marfisi. 

The fastest trotting division went to the aptly named Seeme Zoom ($2.70), who delivered a dominant 9-1/4-length romp in 1:59.4. J Harris drove for Lacey McCabe, leading gate to wire with fractions of :28.3, :58.2 and 1:28 before coasting home the easiest of winners over Brydown Green Bean (Robert Doyle).

The other two trotting divisions belonged to Cleveland Royalty (Tyler Borth, $7.20) in 2:00.4 for trainer Katie MacNeil and upsetter Muskie Man (Damian MacLellan, $38.50) in 2:01 for Kyle Bossence.

To view Tuesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Tuesday Results - The Raceway at Western Fair District.

(Standardbred Canada)