The track was sloppy, but there was no rain on the parade of trainer-driver Stephane Pouliot, who kicked off a natural hat trick as he steered his Raising Rusty to victory in the $10,000 Preferred Handicap Trot at Rideau Carleton Raceway on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
Raising Rusty sped away from post two to secure a pocket journey behind R Royal Port (Robert Shepherd), who maintained command through :28.4, 1:00.1, and 1:30.1 fractions. R Royal Port rebuffed the first-over Paradise Moni (Kevin Maguire) coming off the last turn, but he could not fend off Raising Rusty, who sprinted up the pylons to win by a half-length in 2:01.1. R Royal Port held second over an advancing Tyrone Bow Tie (Pascal Berube).
Raising Rusty improved his yearly tally to six-for-30 for Pouliot, who trains the eight-year-old for 9096 9205 Quebec Inc. of Gloucester, Ont. The son of Kadabra-Raising The Bar tallied his 32nd lifetime victory in 188 starts and grew his bankroll to $263,283. He returned $7.20 at the windows.
Pouliot returned to the winner’s circle after the seventh race with D Gs De Vito ($2.80), who moved twice to the lead before three-eighths and provided all the fractions in a 2:00 victory. Southwind Russian ($5.90) then glided to a 16-length win in the eighth race, stopping the clock in 1:59.2. Pouliot’s trainees were three-for-three on the card, and the conditioner now has 36 victories this season in 278 starts. He is fourth in the trainers’ standings at Rideau.
To view Wednesday’s harness racing results, click the following link: Wednesday Results - Rideau Carleton Raceway.
(Standardbred Canada)