Last week a lady beat the boys to win Woodbine Racetrack’s $42,000 Open Pace, and on Saturday night it was a sophomore getting the edge and springing a 10-1 surprise on his elders at the Open level
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Aracache Hanover is his name, and this season winning has been his game for the father/son duo of trainer Gregg McNair and driver Doug McNair. The speedy son of Dragon Again-Armbro Cachet was treated to a pocket trip in the nightly feature, and he didn’t let it go to waste.
McNair blasted to the lead with Aracache Hanover, who took the field to the quarter pole in a :26-second clip before releasing Lucky Man to the position of command. Aracache Hanover shadowed the pacesetter through middle splits of :54.2 and 1:22.2 before popping out of the pocket and sprinting by in the closing strides en route to the 1:50.3 score. Get Out Of Dodge rallied late to grab the runner-up award, while Lucky Man was forced to settle for the show dough.
“He was real good tonight,” trainer Gregg McNair commented following the victory. “If he raced well tonight we were going to supplement him into the Cleveland Classic ($175,000 purse at Northfield Park) next week. If he comes out of this race sound I think we’ll go.
“After he won the Confederation Cup we had some soundness issues with him and he wasn’t right but right now it appears he’s on his game.”
William Switala and Jim Martin of Clarence Centre, NY share ownership on the talented colt, who improved his 2010 record to 10-2-2 from just 19 trips to the track. Fresh off his win in the $200,000 Windy City Pace at Maywood Park, this year’s Confederation Cup winner bumped his overall earnings to $731,940 with the win.
Based on his accomplishments in 2010, Aracache Hanover figures to get plenty of consideration from the voters in the Three-Year-Old Pacing Colt of the Year category for this year’s O’Brien Awards.
To view Saturday’s results, click here.