Driver Mike Hennessy had the hot hands on a cold night at Century Mile, as he completed a five-win performance with a sweep of the Fillies & Mares Preferred features on Friday, Nov. 14.

Hennessy teamed up with his father Rod's trainee, Byby Baby Byby, to take the main event in the 10th race, the $16,000 Fillies & Mares Preferred Pace, in 1:53.2. Byby Baby Byby made up an early 10-length deficit tracking cover third-over from seventh midway down the backstretch and sprinting home in :27.3 to steal the glory in the final strides by three-quarters of a length over late stretch leader Outlaw Sharktastic (Nathan Sobey), with Senga Nightmare (Ryan Grundy) in between. She paid $13.30 to win as the 5-1 fifth choice on the toteboard while 2-1 favourite Outlawguns N Roses (David Kelly) gave way late and ended up sixth after leading through fractions of :27.3, :56.1 and 1:24.4. 

A four-year-old homebred daughter of Vertical Horizon out of Ba By Ceia Later, Byby Baby Byby is owned by Bryan Brook of Leduc, Alta., and Diane Hennessy of Strathmore, Alta. On the eve of this year's Alberta Sires Stakes Super Finals, the former provincial champion, who holds the 1:52.2 track record for two-year-olds, earned her first Preferred-level victory to give her 10 career wins from 37 starts and lift her earnings to $293,392.

Hennessy capped off his five-win night in rein to Nonversation in the $11,000 Fillies & Mares Preferred 2 Handicap Pace two races later. Leaving from post four, Nonversation emerged between rivals in an early tussle for the top spot heading into the backstretch, clearing the aptly named Amped Up Annie (Nathan Sobey) past the :27.4 quarter while 6-5 favourite Red N Ready (Jacques Lambert) took back to third after being caught three-wide. Nonversation continued to lead the way past the half in :56 and opened up two lengths to three-quarters in 1:25.1 with Mystic Wild Rose (Phil Giesbrecht) on the move first-up. But it was 2-1 second choice Baby Limbo (Kelly Hoerdt) who posed the major danger as that one stormed off cover. Nonversation found the wire just in time to prevail by half a length over Baby Limbo, with Mystic Wild Rose settling for third in between. Nonversation took a new lifetime mark of 1:54.1, winning for the 19th time in her career spanning 81 starts.

A career winner of $116,810, the five-year-old Mystician-Say Anything mare improved off a pair of third-place finishes to win her third start from the Rebecca Kanak stable and returned $17.10 to her backers as the 7-1 third choice in the field of nine. Nonversation is owned by Tara Isman, Gladstone of Man., Jim Wilson of Regina, Sask., and Richard Remillard of Westbourne, Man.

Hennessy's first two wins of the night were also with horses trained by Kanak and his father. In the opener, he went from last to first in the stretch with the claiming mare Tina La Vida ($7.30) for Kanak then came right back to sweep the early Daily Double with the forwardly placed three-year-old colt Captains Buddy ($7.40) scoring a maiden-breaking victory for his father. Hennessy added a mid-card victory with the Travis Ellis-trained claimer Loaded Dragon ($3.80) leading wire-to-wire before winning with the top distaffers during the back half of the 13-race program.

Hennessy has earned 35 wins this year at Century Mile and currently ranks second in the driver standings behind Phil Giesbrecht, who has 48 wins after steering three successful starters during Friday's card. The Lacombe, Alta. reinsman is in his third straight million-dollar campaign, with a career-high for purses sitting just shy of $1.3 million. He is just nine wins away from matching his single-season best win count of 155 from last year. 

To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Century Mile.

(Standardbred Canada; photo of Byby Baby Byby winning on Nov. 14)