Marquise De Sarah retook the lead from Waasmula in deep stretch to deliver on her pari-mutuel promise in the featured $30,000 Fillies & Mares Preferred Pace at Woodbine Racetrack on Friday night.
Driver Jody Jamieson worked out the winning trip aboard Marquise De Sarah, who is trained by David Menary for owner/breeder Robert Bridges of Burlington, Ont. She paid $3.90 to win as the 4-5 favourite.
Leaving from post five in the six-horse, third race field of distaffers, Marquise De Sarah fired to the lead and posted a :29-second opening panel. Waasmula was hot on her heels and Trevor Henry pulled that mare from the pocket just past the quarter pole then swept to command.
Waasmula reached the half-mile mark in :58 and raced to three-quarters in 1:25.3 with Marquise De Sarah tracking her every move. There was break between the top two and the rest of the field, however, Bullet Point (Simon Allard) attempted to make up some ground as she moved around Give Me An Amen (Chris Christoforou) to take over third-place with last week's winner Greystone Ladylike (Doug McNair) gapping her cover.
Waasmula continued to lead the mares into the stretch, but Marquise De Sarah was inching closer and closer as the wire approached and eventually edged by for the 1:54.1 victory. Waasmula settled for second, finishing three-quarters of a length behind. Bullet Point was third with Give Me An Amen and Greystone Ladylike rounding out the top five finishers.
Marquise De Sarah has now won five of her last six starts. The five-year-old daughter of Mach Three has won 17 times in her career with 16 other on the board finishes in 54 starts and over $290,000 collected in purse earnings.
Just one race prior, former pacing mare Pureform Olympia (Phil Hudon) kept her current trotting win streak in tact, going wire-to-wire from post six and holding off a from-last Raise The Curtain (Chris Christoforou) by a head in 1:58.1. The win was her first at Woodbine Racetrack and eighth in a row since switching gaits.
Gord Remmen trains the six-year-old Valet Victory mare for owner Shelley Nyuli of Abbotsford, B.C. She paid $9 to win as the 7-2 second choice to the runner-up.
Woodbine's Jackpot Hi 5 carryover climbed to $221,920.98 for Saturday night's 10th race. The entire pool pays out only when there is one winning ticket sold that correctly selects the first five finishers in exact order.
Favourite Ideal Shadow prevailed in Friday's 10th race with American Terror, Givenupdreaming, Arrived Late and Y Lotus rounding out the top five finishers. That 6-2-8-9-5 combination paid $1,988.75 to winning ticket holders for a $1-based wager.
First race post time on Saturday is 7:25 p.m.
For free, printable program pages for Saturday's card of racing, courtesy of TrackIT, click here.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Racetrack.