McWicked Surpasses $1 Million Mark
McWicked was the star of the Glamour Boy division in a quartet of $260,000 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes Championships for three-year-olds on Sunday afternoon at Harrah's Philadelphia as he turned in a milestone victory for trainer Casie Coleman. Meanwhile, the Jimmy Takter stable completed a sweep of the trotting divisions.
Mcwicked surpassed the $1 million career earnings mark with his victory in the PASS Championship for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings.
Under the command of regular driver David Miller, the 2-5 favourite swept around early leader Limelight Beach after a :26.4 first quarter and never looked back. McWicked reached the half in :54.2 and three-quarters in 1:22 and sealed the deal with a :26.4 final frame. Limelight Beach finished one and a quarter lengths behind after ducking inside down the lane while Somewhere In L A advanced first over to show.
The Little Brown Jug-bound McWicked, a son of McArdle out of Western Sahara, has earned the bulk of his $1,097,393 bankroll this year with nine wins in 13 starts for the S S G Stables.
Coleman also reached a money milestone of her own later on the card, with sophomore pacing fillies Also Encouraging (second) and Someislandsomwhere (fifth) picking up cheques in their Championship to propel her career earnings over $50 million.
Weeper won the filly final as she kicked off cover for the 1:51.1 score, upsetting at odds of 11-1, for driver Dave Palone and trainer Kelly O'Donnell.
Sandbetweenurtoes moved early around leaver Allstar Rating and led the field through panels of :26.3, :55.1 and 1:22.4 before being swarmed by the backfield in the stretch to suffer her first loss of the season. Weeper, who got away seventh from post seven, followed the outer flow at the half and was spotted third over and fanning four-wide off Southwind Silence's cover into the stretch. She sprinted home in :27.2 to prevail by one and a quarter lengths with early trailer Also Encouraging also closing well for the runner-up honours. Beach Gal, the 6-5 favourite, went first over from third to complete the top three finishers.
Bay Pond Racing Stable owns the Allamerican Native-Pleasant Yet Bad filly, who has now won half of her 10 starts and $274,166 in purses this year.
Jimmy Takter completed a sweep of the three-year-old trotting championships with filly Lifetime Pursuit extending her stakes streak to five with a 1:53.2 track record victory and colt Father Patrick leading stablemate Nuncio across the wire in 1:52.4. Both winners were driven by Yannick Gingras.
Lifetime Pursuit, parked out in third from post five, trotted on through a :28.4 opening quarter and cleared to command in front of the grandstand ahead of Take The Money. The Brittany Farms homebred raced to the half in :56.3 with a parked-from-the-start Designed To Be moving up to challenge. However, 1-5 favourite Lifetime Pursuit drew one length clear on top by the 1:25 three-quarters mark and continued to extend her leading margin in the stretch with another :28.2 quarter to win by more than three lengths. Designed To Be stayed for second and Struck By Lindy came on for third.
The Cantab Hall-Queen Of Grace filly improved her seasonal record to seven wins in 12 starts this year. Her earnings climbed to $620,563 in 2014 and $890,933 lifetime.
Despite their outside post positions in the colt Championship, Father Patrick (post seven) and Nuncio (post eight) were one-two for most of the mile with the rest of the field racing in their shadow.
Nuncio and John Campbell crossed over in front of Don Dorado during a :27-second opening quarter with Father Patrick trotting up to take over in the straightaway. The 1-5 favourite cruised through middle splits of :55.1 and 1:24.3 before closing out the mile with a :28.1 final frame. Nuncio dropped inside, but couldn't get any closer than one length to his stablemate. Don Dorado followed back in third.
Now eight-for-10 in his sophomore year, Father Patrick pushed his seasonal earnings to $830,001 and surpassed the $1.5 million career earnings mark for his Father Patrick Stable ownership group.
Father Patrick has been entered in the $682,000 Canadian Trotting Classic at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday, September 13 with his other star stablemate Trixton. (Eliminations were not necessary with only seven entries).