Though the year has changed with the sun rising in 2024, Shark Week made no changes to his race strategy as the six-year-old Vertical Horizon gelding won the $14,000 Preferred Handicap Pace at Century Mile from gate-to-wire on Saturday, Jan. 6 for his 16th straight triumph.
Despite his assigned outside post, Shark Week wasted little time in getting to the front of the pack in the featured pace. Mike Hennessy and the Rod Hennessy student maintained a 1-1/2-length cushion through panels in :26.2, :55.4 and 1:25.4. Down the lane, Ernesto Delacruz (J.F. Gagne) gave chase as a fierce challenge for the favourite. Both pacers set a last panel in :27, but Shark Week had enough of an advantage to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:52.4. Bonus Round (David Kelly) completed the triactor.
Shark Week ended 2023 with 20 wins on the year from 24 starts and $141,990 put away. On Saturday, Shark Week added another win to give him 41 career tallies and a career sum of $348,475 from 75 track appearances. Rod Hennessy co-owns Shark Week with Lorne Duffield.
Similar to his last 35 starts, the gelding was the designated bettors' choice. As such, he returned $2.80 to win.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - Century Mile.
(Standardbred Canada)
Shark Week, who else?
And to think that you could have bought Shark Week as a yearling for $6,000!! I remember watching the Century Downs track announcer interviewing Shark Week's trainer Rod Hennessy after his horse won a race about 4-5 months ago, when Shark Week's winning streak was only about half as long as it is now. The announcer asked him if he had any thoughts of moving his horse east to Ontario where the purses are much higher. His reply? "No, been there, done that."