More than half of the field entered in Western Fair Raceway’s $195,000 Forest City Pace were out and about on Friday night prepping for next weekend’s stake, but failed to produce a winning performance
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Woodbine Racetrack’s $42,000 Fillies & Mares Open Pace featured four Forest City starters including reigning Horse of the Year Dreamfair Eternal, Seriously, Ticket To Rock and Voelz Hanover. However, it was Rebeka Bayama who recovered from an early miscue and extended her win streak to five with a 1:52.2 effort in the ninth race feature.
Driven by Sylvain Filion, the 1-2 favourite made an uncharacteristic break behind the gate, but recovered and settled into fifth place.
Meanwhile, Voelz Hanover (Mario Baillargeon) fired to the lead from the outside Post 7 before Ticket To Rock (Jody Jamieson) pulled the pocket early on and took over command. She hit the first quarter in :27.3 and proceeded to the half in :57.
Down the backstretch, Dreamfair Eternal (Chris Christoforou) angled off the pylons from fourth and advanced first over with Rebeka Bayama and Seriously (Scott Zeron) following her cover.
Ticket To Rock led the field past three-quarters in 1:25.1 and into the stretch with Dreamfair Eternal digging in on the outside and Rebeka Bayama moving into the three-path.
Flying home on the far outside, Rebeka Bayama got up in the final strides to score the narrow win over Ticket To Rock with Dreamfair Eternal sandwiched in between horses for third. Voelz Hanover finished fourth.
Rebeka Bayama recorded her seventh win in 10 seasonal starts and pushed her 2011 earnings to $143,040. The four-year-old Leader Bayama mare, who has earned nearly $250,000 lifetime, is trained by Justin Filion and owned and bred by Bayama Farms Inc. of Saint-Andre-D'Argenteuil, Que. She paid $3.10 to win.
Earlier on the card, Modern Connection foiled Warrawee Koine in her prep race for the Forest City Pace.
Competing against a field of conditioned fillies and mares in the $25,000 fourth race, 6-5 favourite Warrawee Koine (Jody Jamieson) worked her way to command from Post 4 during a :26.1 opening quarter and led the field through middle splits of :55.4 and 1:25.
Meanwhile, Modern Connection and driver Scott Zeron launched a first over attack from fourth down the backstretch.
Warrawee Koine maintained the lead into the stretch, but Modern Connection collared the pacesetter with less than an eighth of a mile to go and drew clear for the two and a quarter length victory in 1:52.1. Warrawee Koine held on for second over the pylon-skimming Mystical Diva (Paul MacDonell).
Modern Connection paid $12.80 to win as the 5-1 third choice in the field. The three-year-old daughter of Modern Art, who has won three of her 17 seasonal starts, is trained by David Menary and is owned by Michigan’s Yousif S. Yousif and Ameer Najor. She has banked $267,186 of her $723,983 bankroll in 2011.
Breeders Crown champion Anndrovette, Blissful Smile, Chancey Lady, and Ginger And Fred will join Dreamfair Eternal, Seriously, Ticket To Rock, Voelz Hanover, and Warrawee Koine in the field for the Forest City Pace. The post draw will take place at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
To view Friday’s harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results – Woodbine Racetrack.