Three-year-old pacing fillies Somewhere A Place and Lissoy were victorious in a pair of $10,000 eliminations for the Northlands Filly Pace on Friday night (November 25) at Northlands Park.
The top four finishers will advance to the $70,000 Northlands Filly Pace, which will be contested next Saturday, Dec. 3 at Northlands Park along with the Western Canada Pacing Derby. The colt eliminations will take place tomorrow night.
Somewhere A Place ($4.40) was a dominant winner in the first elimination as she took the lead down the backstretch and drew off by more than four lengths for trainer/driver Serge Masse.
Divas Dragonfly (Jamie Gray) retook the lead from outside leaver Lucky Lucka (Kelly Hoerdt) past the :28.3 opening quarter and then Somewhere A Place went first-over from third leaving a gap to the back three fillies. Somewhere A Place continued her quest to the top past the half in :58.1 and began to open up on top. The 6-5 favourite passed three-quarters in 1:26.1 while expanding her leading margin and left her rivals to battle it out for the final qualifying positions as she scored in 1:56.1. Brighten Your Life (Phil Giesbrecht) rallied outside of Monstrous (J.F. Gagne) and Lucky Lucka to finish second in a three-across finish.
Somewhere A Place made her Northlands debut a winning one while notching her seventh victory of the season from 23 starts. Masse also owns the Somebeachsomewhere-Duncans Artsplace filly, who has earned $68,378 in her sophomore campaign.
In addition to Brighten Your Life and Lucky Lucka, the Kelly Hoerdt stable qualified two more entrants for the Northlands Filly Pace as Lissoy was a wire-to-wire winner in the second elimination with stablemate Jet To The Beach finishing second.
Hoerdt sent Lissoy to the front from post five ahead of the even-money inside starter, No Guarantees (Bill Tainsh Jr.), through a :29.1 opener and held a comfortable lead to the half in :58.2. Down the backstretch, Apple Blossom Time (Brandon Campbell) tipped first from fourth, flushing No Guarantees from the pocket. The favourite moved up to pressure Lissoy on the way to three-quarters in 1:27, but the front-runner drew clear down the stretch to secure the victory and a new lifetime mark of 1:56.1. Jet To The Beach (Mike Hennessy) finished second off a three-hole trip ahead of No Guarantees while Credit The Shark (Keith Clark) earned the remaining spot in the final.
Sent postward at odds of 5-1, Lissoy paid $13.10 to win. She now boasts six wins in eight starts since relocating from Ontario to Alberta and joining the Hoerdt stable in August. Hoerdt shares ownership of the Art Major-Lislea Sophia filly with Blair Corbeil of Beaumont, Alta. and Kyle Anderson of Edmonton.
The victory was the fifth on the 11-race card for Hoerdt, who trains four of those winners.
This week's $10,000 Fillies & Mares Open Pace went to Wild Chic ($7.70), who led through fractions of :28, :57.2 and 1:25.3 en route to a career-best 1:55.2 triumph for trainer/driver Brandon Campbell and the Don Byrne Stables Inc. Nighttraintovegas (Nathan Sobey) and Yellow Mustang (Phil Giesbrecht) finished second and third, respectively.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Northlands Park.