Secret Weapon showed no mercy to the seven foes he squared off with in Monday’s $14,800 Preferred Pace at Western Fair Raceway, as he and driver Doug McNair motored to a seven-length score
in the featured event.
McNair, who extended his lead in Western Fair Raceway’s drivers’ standings with a four-win performance, used a bold move up the backstretch with Secret Weapon en route to the blowout victory in a time of 1:56.1.
Sent off as the 6-5 choice, Secret Weapon was seventh and parked at the quarter pole while Pacific Oak sprinted past that opening marker in :28.2. The leader backed down the speed in the second quarter, and in doing so he appeared to have the advantage at the mid-way point in :58.3. Secret Weapon in the meantime was sixth and parked while following cover.
McNair stepped on the accelerator when the field moved into the backstretch, and when he called on Secret Weapon for top speed the pacer complied. In a matter of strides the eight-year-old son of Western Hanover poked his head in front of the field while he raced three-wide past the three-quarter pole in 1:27.3. His momentum carried him to the lead and he took off to a five-length lead at the head of the lane. He grabbed another pair of lengths in the stretch en route to posting the 1:56.1 tally over Shadywood Baron and Pacific Oak.
Wayne Preszcator conditions the gelding for the Secret Weapon Stables of Waterloo, ON. It was his seventh win of the season and the 36th of the career for the veteran pacer who lifted his lifetime earnings to $447,940 with the win.
Just one dash earlier on the 12-race card it was Rub Thing who used off-the-pace tactics of her own to win the $12,600 Fillies & Mares Preferred for the tandem of driver Trevor Henry and trainer Casie Coleman.
The three-year-old daughter of On The Attack, who had done loads of half-mile track racing in Ohio for former trainer Virgil Morgan, Jr., took to the London oval like a duck to water. She got away sixth and held that position to the mid-way point before Henry started up the engine on the sophomore. When he fed her racetrack in the backstretch she made a three-wide brush to the lead and simply drew away in the closing strides. She ended up winning by three lengths in a time f 1:56.4. Virtual Princess was second best, with Outofthefryingpan finished third.
Virgil Morgan Jr Stables of Grove City, OH owns the pacing lass who picked up her twelfth win of the season and the fifteenth of her career. The $6,300 payday bumped her overall bankroll to $160,816.
To view Monday’s results, click here.