The late daily double on Saturday, Oct. 4 at Connell Park Raceway in Woodstock, N.B. provided a tale of two very different winners.

With the afternoon's feature — a $2,000 Winners Over Pace — carded as the sixth race, Nuttin But Finesse went postward after back-to-back local wins, including a dominant 1:54.1 score last time out in the Rod Goguen Memorial. But the betting public backed Chuck You Farlie, making his local debut after 104 career starts in Western Canada.

Unimpressed by either of those rivals, Whats In The Esky A and driver Colin Decourcey used their rail starting spot to gain early command and dictate the terms on the front end. After a :28.4 opener and :58.2 half, Whats In The Esky A faced the challenge of Nuttin But Finesse and driver Mike Downey. Those two traded blows from the five-eighths mark and through three-quarters of 1:27.3, then faced crunch time turning for home.

At the head of the lane, Nuttin But Finesse showed he had more than just finesse in his bag of tricks on this occasion and pulled away from his rival in the final strides for the 1:56 score. Whats In The Esky A was second, 1-3/4 lengths in arrears, with Sophies Cam (Shawn MacLennan) rounding out the top trio.

Make that five wins in seven starts for Nuttin But Finesse (Art Major - Nuttin But Trouble) since Dr. Mitch Downey of Saint John, N.B. obtained the seven-year-old and brought him to Atlantic Canada. Ellen Stevenson handles the conditioning on the 38-time winner with more than $390,000 in career earnings. He returned $3.80 to win.

Gary Wright of Woodstock, N.B. is a longtime horseman with starts on both sides of the border...as a trainer. Driving? Not as much. Since 2010, Wright had started in just 17 races as a driver, and hadn't won a pari-mutuel race since 2008.

And that's what made the afternoon finale on Saturday all the more noteworthy.

Making his first pari-mutuel starts as a driver since 2012, Wright guided Windsong Napoleon to a fourth-place finish in the second race of the day and then found the wire first in the finale aboard West River Jordyn — a filly he co-owns with Shayne Wright of Alberta — with a 2:01.4 mile.

The last time that Wright won as a driver? Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008 — 17 years ago to the day. That's career win number six for Wright, who sports 75 career training tallies.

For full results from Saturday's card of harness racing in New Brunswick, click the following link: Saturday Results - Connell Park Raceway.

(Standardbred Canada)