Easton Beach, the second-longest shot on the toteboard, pulled off a 27-1 upset in the featured $11,500 Preferred 2 Pace on Friday evening (October 16) at The Raceway at Western Fair District.
Trained and driven by George Ketros, trailing tier starter Easton Beach protected his pylon position early on to secure the pocket spot behind Levis Day (Marc St. Louis Jr.) and force Brave World (Colin Kelly) to take back to third.
Easton Beach followed Levis Day through fractions of :28, :57.3 and 1:26.1 before tipping out at the top of the lane and collaring the 12-1 leader just before the wire in 1:55.1. Levis Day was a neck back in second while even-money favourite Pro Beach (Brett MacDonald) finished three lengths behind in third.
A four-year-old son of Somebeachsomewhere, Easton Beach was a 13-1 winner in Grand River Raceway's Preferred 3 two starts ago and top three in last Friday's Preferred 2 in London. He returned $56.90 to his backers tonight.
Mary Ketros owns the nine-time career winner, who is five-for-14 this year.
George Ketros also had a win in the first leg of the Ontario Sired Autumn Series on Friday's card as Smilingbillythekid ($6.80) took the first of three $8,500 divisions for two and three-year-old pacing colts and geldings. The two-year-old Betterthancheddar-Frown Upside Down colt finished a half-length in front of even-money favourite Machaholic in 1:57.3 and is now 2-2-2 from seven lifetime starts for owner/breeder William Brown of Hanover, Ont.
The other divisions also ended in close calls with three-year-olds Raise You Twenty ($2.90) prevailing in 1:58 with Anthony Haughan in the bike for trainer Meg Crone and Shifting Views ($16.80) scoring in 1:59.2 for driver Marc St. Louis Jr. and trainer Nick Gallucci.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Western Fair.