Andover America, the ultra-game warrior owned by McTrade Enterprises, kept his record unblemished at Pompano Park for the new season by scoring his third straight win in the $10,000 Open Handicap Trot on Wednesday night.

The nine-year-old altered son of Andover Hall stopped the timer in 1:56.3 for driver Bruce Ranger. The duo eked out a narrow win from the late-charging Its Payday Friday, driven by Dan Clements. The winning margin was a neck. Gale Warning, with Mike Micallef handling the lines, finished third. Majestic Won finished fourth and Naughty Not Nice finished fifth in the field of six.

Andover America, who had shown nothing but ‘1s’ on his past performance lines in his first two wins, tried to repeat that strategy on Wednesday by blasting out of the gate and taking the field to the quarter-mile pole in :28.3. Right at that first station, driver Mike Micallef sent his own warrior, Gale Warning, on the prowl and took over the lead three-eighths into the mile and got over to the half in :57.1. He continued to lead the way past the three-quarters of a mile station in 1:26.3.

Turning for home, Ranger yanked on the right line, engaged Gale Warning in a duel, gamely outfought his foe and then held off the furious late surge of Its Payday Friday to score in the photo finish.

The latter, incidentally, made a bobble leaving and spotted the field up to 10 lengths before regaining his composure while almost pulling off the upset.

In a post race interview, Ranger said, "Andover (America) is just a wonderful racehorse...a dream racehorse. Yes, he might be a step or two slower than his peak days a couple of years ago, but he sure knows how to win."

When asked about whether he was worried about the late rally of Its Payday Friday, Ranger admitted, "I never saw him. When he made that jump at the start, I thought, 'well, that's one less than I have to worry about.' Let's just say the wire came at the right time.”

The victory sent Andover America's lifetime earnings to $780,890. At 1-5 on the tote-board, the winner paid $2.60 to his loyal followers.

Racing continues on Saturday night with a key matchup featuring Panocchio and Prairie Jaguar. Duc Dorleans looks to spoil the party for the highly regarded aforementioned, coming into the action with the richest scorecard in the field – $385,356 – to go along with a mark of 1:49.2.

First race post time is 7:30 p.m.

(Pompano)