If veteran pacer Southwind Ricardo was to have an entrance theme or walk-up music, he'd be well-suited to use Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends given his stellar performance year in and year out once the calendar flips to October.
Looking back on 2019, six-year-old Southwind Ricardo won 10 races and five of those came in just eight starts (5-1-0-1) after October 1. As a seven-year-old in 2020, that post-September record was just as solid with a 5-1-1 summary in seven starts.
On Saturday (Nov. 14) Southwind Ricardo trounced his rivals in the weekly Winners Over feature at Northside Downs. With regular driver Harold Leblanc Jr. up, Southwind Ricardo was tested early by Brother John (Randy Getto) but was resolute in his front-end intentions. After repelling his rival through a sizzling :29.2 opening quarter over the track listed as 'slow' with a five-second variant applied. All that challenge appeared to do was fire up the favourite, as Southwind Ricardo powered through panels of 1:00 and 1:31.1 with close to a double-digit lead on his rivals. A wrapped-up :31.2 final quarter was more than enough to seal the deal on the victory, more than 11 lengths the best in a time of 2:02.3. Johnnie Jack (Greg Sparling) and Brother John completed the triactor.
Owned by Joel Le Blanc of Victoria Mines, trainer Harold Le Blanc of Sydney, William Seymour and Bernie Gillis of Glace Bay, N.S., Southwind Ricardo (Dragon Again - Southwind Rio) notched his 39th career win and pushed his lifetime earnings to $109,018.
The Saturday card concluded the 2020 harness racing meet at Northside Downs, leaving Truro Raceway as the only track in Nova Scotia conducting live racing for the rest of the year.
To view the results for Saturday's card of harness racing at Northside, click the following link: Saturday Results - Northside Downs.