As the old expression goes, when the cat is away, the mice will play. In this instance, the cat in question is Mappos Lion. The nine-year-old pacer is perfect in six starts this year and 11-for-12 in the last two years since shifting his base of operations to Nova Scotia. Last week at Northside, he pushed his unbeaten streak to nine in the Winners Over class. This week, he's in to go at Inverness Raceway on Sunday, June 28.

With the cat established, let's focus on the mice: the five horses entered in the $1,600 Winners Over Pace at Northside on Saturday, June 27.

Ranked Contender went postward as the 3-5 public choice, and he delivered on that pari-mutuel promise with a wire-to-wire victory in 1:57.4 — his first top-class tally in 79 career starts.

As regular pilot Ardon Mofford continues to recover from an accident at Inverness on June 14, Redmond Doucet picked up the catch-driving assignment on Saturday afternoon. Doucet asked the six-year-old gelding to step away quickly from his inside starting spot, and the public choice obliged with a :29.2 opening quarter to front the field of five. Company came calling shortly after that first quarter in the form of Hugh Heff (driven by Randy Getto) and the former local Horse of the Year pressured the pacesetter through a :59.1 half and 1:28.4 third quarter. When Getto asked, Hugh Heff couldn't sustain the pressure and Ranked Contender pulled away to win by 2-3/4 lengths. Kountry Diamond (Mark Pezzarello) came late to pick off Hugh Heff for the place position.

Peter MacKinnon of Sydney, N.S. owns and trains Ranked Contender, with the son of Tobago Cays-Euphoria Seelster picking up his 14th lifetime victory — third in a row — to accompany his $19,244 in purses. As the 3-5 choice, Ranked Contender returned $3.30 to win.

The early part of the card was dominated by trainer Jake Jacobs, who picked up three wins in the first four races of the day. Jacobs started the day in the winner's circle courtesy American Starlight (2:02.3; $3.20) and then went back-to-back in the third and fourth dashes with Zaidans Luck (2:02.3; $7.70) and Dont Ask Logan (2:01.4; $8.90). All three wins were engineered by driver Carey Romeo.

Sporting a 0.300 UTRS in 2026 by virtue of a 5-1-5 summary from 24 starts, Jacobs now sports 214 lifetime victories with $208,764 in purses.

For the full results from the card of harness racing in Cape Breton on Saturday, click the following link: Saturday Results - Northside Downs.

(Standardbred Canada)