After trading blows over the past month in Inverness Raceway's top class, veteran pacer Sea Laird and young gun Captain Tate shared the spotlight on Sunday, Oct. 11 in a dead heat.

Captain Tate won their last two Inverness matchups on Oct. 4 and Sept. 20 with Sea Laird getting the best of the sophomore colt in their Sept. 13 bout. It was a draw this week as Captain Tate, parked early on and shuffled behind foes, found racing room in deep stretch to match the wide-rallying Sea Laird on the line in this week's featured $2,000 Winner Over Handicap Pace. The race was named in honour of horsemen Wayne and Jimmy MacDonald.

With the inside post advantage, McLand (Danny Gillis) secured the lead and protected his position on the point from the outside leavers into the opening turn as Whats Up Doc (Keigan Madden) landed in the pocket and outside assignee Captain Tate was left parked out through a :27.4 first quarter. With the rest of the field gapping the top trio, trainer/driver Walter Walker took Captain Tate back into the three-hole past the quarter pole. 

The backfield caught up as McLand continued to lead the way in front of the grandstand the first time through a half in :58, with Shir Gain (Rodney Gillis) moving first-over from fourth and Sea Laird following the cover second-over for trainer/driver Zach Mullins.

As McLand showed the way to three-quarters in 1:28.1 with pressure mounting from Shir Gain, Sea Laird raced alongside the shuffled Captain Tate near the back. With Sea Laird angling three-wide ahead of the stretch drive, Captain Tate snuck out behind the first-up challenger Shir Gain, who took it to McLand as they spun for home. 

The front three battled down the stretch with Captain Tate locked and loaded behind them, but he managed to find a seam late to split rivals and get up in time matching Sea Laird as that rival surged late on the outside. Shir Gain finished a quarter-length back between the 1:58.3 dead heat winners.

Walker trains and drives the Captain Crunch colt Captain Tate, who is currently Canada's winningest Standardbred this year with 17 successful starts, for owner James MacInnis of Halifax, N.S.

Sea Laird, a 10-year-old Custard The Dragon gelding with seven of his 43 wins recorded this season, is locally owned by trainer/driver Mullins and Douglas Lowthers. 

Captain Tate paid $2.10 to win as the 2-5 favourite while the backers of 4-1 third betting choice Sea Laird received $3.40 for their win tickets.

Sea Laird's winning effort in the featured finale capped off a natural hat trick on the seven-race card for the Mullins stable, with the grey mare Bettie White ($4.10) and three-year-old gelding Woodmere Novak ($34) also winning their Sunday assignments -- the former driven to a 3-3/4-length romp in 1:59.2 by her trainer and the latter longshot winner holding off favoured Stay Pumped by a neck in 1:59.3 with Rodney Gillis between the wheels. Mullins also had an earlier driving win with trainer Shaun MacDonald's Afair Somewhere ($11.20), who prevailed by a head over favoured Mojo Beach.

Now with a total of 18 training wins at the 2026 meet, Mullins took the lead in the Inverness standings, topping D.F. Beaton and Walker, each with 16.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Inverness Raceway.

(Standardbred Canada; photo just before the wire of Captain Tate [#6 inside] with Sea Laird [#4 outside] and Shir Gain [#2 middle])