Ontario-sired R Gauwitz Hanover won the $10,000 Open Pace at Running Aces Sunday night to become the first double winner of the weekly feature in the first six weeks of the meet.

The five-year-old Modern Art gelding, who lowered his lifetime record to 1:51.3 with the victory, had also won in week four of the meet for owner Laurie Patistas. Rick Magee was in the sulky behind R Gauwitz Hanover this time around as trainer Jason Ryan had an uncoupled stablemate, Silver Spir, in the race and finished second by three-quarters of a length. Smarter Yet (Kim Pluta), last week's winner, was a close third.

Ryan also trained and reined another swift winner when Threestepstoheaven captured a $9,000 undercard event, which featured a mix of conditioned horses and $12,500 claimers. Anthony Artuso owns the son of Rambaran, who just edged Its Getting Hairy (Rob Dinning) and Canadian Touch (Steve Wiseman) in 1:52.

Owner-trainer Jesse DeLong also had a nice night winning back-to-back races. Mister Virgin (Nick Roland) captured a $5,000 condition-claimer in 1:54.3 and Im Blue Too (Steve Wiseman) followed up with a 1:53.2 tally in a $6,000 condition and $7,500 claimers race.

The driving star of the night was Magee, who won the final four races on the program, including the Open. The 36-year-old Wisconsin native now has 24 wins at Running Aces in 2014 to secure his fifth-place position in the dash standings and narrow the gap on the leaders. Defending champion Nick Roland has the slight edge with 33 wins, followed by both Ryan and Steve Wiseman with 31, Tim Maier with 26 and Magee with 24.

Racing resumes Tuesday night at Running Aces and will feature an estimated $4,000 50-cent Pick 6 wager on races three through eight. Post time is 7 p.m. central time.

(Running Aces)