Sodwana Bay ($3.70) held on to win Friday night's sixth race at Woodbine in neck decision, marking a career milestone for trainer Carmen Auciello.
The victory was a cause for celebration in the winner's circle as Auciello reached the 1,000-win plateau.
Driver Jonathan Drury put Sodwana Bay on the lead during the opening quarter and held off Every Time to win the $15,000 claiming mares class in 1:54.1. The four-year-old No Pan Intended mare has now won back-to-back starts off the claim for owner David Snowden.
The Auciello stable has recorded 125 wins so far this year while banking $1.95 million in purses. He has won 81 of those races on the WEG Circuit, ranking second among all trainers this year behind Richard Moreau.
Friday proved to be a night of milestones as Victor Puddy, a regular on the WEG Circuit, also reached a milestone of 2,000 career wins in the sixth race at The Raceway.
Earlier on the Woodbine program, two-time O'Brien Award winner L A Delight earned the first victory of her four-year-old campaign in a late-season $25,000 high-end conditioned class for pacing mares.
Despite being winless in 12 starts this year, L A Delight was the fan favourite at odds of 2-5 moving out of the Preferred class. She paid $2.80 to win.
Paired with driver Trevor Henry for the first time in her career, L A Delight left from post six and cleared Artistic Madison entering the first turn. After clocking a :26.2 opening panel, she took a second quarter breather to the half in :56. With the outer flow beginning to develop, L A Delight picked up the pace to three-quarters in 1:23.3 and bid farewell to her foes off the final turn. L A Delight drew off by six and a half lengths down the stretch to win in 1:51.1. Request For Parole was second-best after rallying off cover while Exhilarated rounded out the top three finish order.
L A Delight notched her 21st career victory and lifted her earnings to $1.59 million. Bob McIntosh trains the homebred Bettors Delight-West Of L A mare for his Robert McIntosh Stables Inc., and partners C S X Stables and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Racetrack.