After a best-of-the-rest finish to a red-hot Euchred one week ago, Johnnie Jack took advantage of that rival's absense with an impressive score in the weekly feature at Northside Downs on Saturday (Oct. 3).
Driver Greg Sparling pointed the sophomore pacer to the position of command from post three and landed on the lead early. The duo was quickly confronted, however, by Southwind Ricardo (Shawn Lynk). Those two pacers slugged it out through fractions of :28.3, :57.2 and 1:28.1 before Southwind Ricardo started to feel the burn of those parked-out strides. A final quarter of :30.1 from favoured Johnnie Jack was more than enough to hold off second choice Runaway Mystery (Harold Leblanc, Jr.) by a length for the 1:58.2 score. Southwind Ricardo stayed for third over pocket rider Brother John (Randy Getto) despite being parked for the mile.
Owned and trained by Travis Campbell of Gardiner Mines, N.S., Johnnie Jack (Westwardho Hanover - Water Sprite) picked up his eighth win of the season in 16 tries. He's earned a cheque in each of his sophomore starts with 13 top-three finishes.
For the full charted results from Northside's Saturday card, click the following link: Saturday Results - Northside Downs.