To say trainer Rene Allard had a good night at the track on Sunday would be an understatement. The nation's second leading conditioner won half of Georgian Downs' 12 races while dominating the fourth leg of the Ford Summit Series for $6,000 claiming pacers.
Five of Allard's six wins came in Summit action, beginning with the streaking You Gotta See This ($5), driven to a 1:54.3 half-length victory by Tyler Moore. Spacehill ($4.20) was up next, scoring his third series win in a row in 1:54 by two and a half lengths in rein to Sylvain Filion. Moore also guided multi-leg winner Hidden Hall ($2.20) to a 1:54.2 one and a half length triumph and Bob Watts ($2.60), another series repeater, to a 1:55.2 half-length victory. Filion also guided last week's winner Xcell Irish Spirit ($2.70) to another 1:54.2 two and a half length tally for Allard, who owns all of his trainees in whole or part.
You Gotta See This, Hidden Hall, and Xcell Irish Spirit were all claimed.
Allard's other winner was the Moore-driven Evening Job ($5.40).
His six wins on the card (from seven starters) gives him a career-high 357 on the year and a top .397 win percentage.
In other series action, driver Scott Coulter doubled up scoring with the Ellie Mayhew-trained Bryndans Toy ($6.90) in 1:54.2 and Passionate Terror ($4.10), who had hit the board in all of his previous series starts, in 1:54.3 for Leonard Lalonde Jr.
The biggest upset of the leg occurred when Rhapsodys Star ($19.50) and trainer-driver Nick Boyd closed from the backfield to win a division in 1:56.1.
The other $5,400 series divisions were won by: Ikeepsecrets ($3.80) in 1:55.1 for driver Paul MacKenzie and conditioner Kevin Tremblay; and My Fella ($4.30) and Anthony MacDonald in 1:54.1 for trainer Carmen Auciello. My Fella is now two-for-two in the series, having won his only other Summit start during the second leg.
The fifth leg of the pacing series will be held on Monday, November 19 followed by the Gold, Silver and Bronze finals on Saturday, November 24.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Georgian Down.