Valedictory Series Continues; 5,000 For Waples

Gotcha Covered gave himself a chance to sweep this year’s Valedictory Pacing Series for three-year-old colt and geldings with another solid 1:53 victory for driver Paul MacDonell in his $20,000 division of Saturday’s second leg at Woodbine Racetrack

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Mcartlee went two-fifths faster by posting a 1:52.3 victory in the other split for driver Mark MacDonald.

In the opening split, Gotcha Covered left enough from Post 9 to land a seat in sixth position in the early going. MacDonell was able to get him out into the flow in the second quarter and had the son of Western Ideal-Day Dreams spotted second over and three lengths from the lead at the third station.

Gotcha Covered rolled three-wide off the final turn and used a :28-second final quarter to win by 1-1/4 lengths over Onemorelastchance (Sylvain Filion) and Sombrero Blue Chip (Mark MacDonald). The winner returned $5.70 for the win.

It was the third straight and fifth overall win in 14 starts this season for the Randy Van Meer trainee, who is owned by Harry Locke and Daniel Sarafian of Ont. The winner’s share of the purse bumped his season earnings to just over $51,000.

Mcartlee used a different approach in the second division as he powered to the front from Post 6 and carved out all the fractions. The son of Artiscape-Sara Lee Hanover held on bravely by a nose at the finish over Blackbird Singing (Mike Saftic). It was another length back to React Ingoodway (Jason Brewer), who finished third.

The victory was the fifth in 29 starts this season for Mcartlee, who returned $7.80. The Victor Puddy trainee improved his seasonal earnings to just over $54,000 with the win.

The $60,000 final of the Valedictory Pacing Series goes postward next Saturday night at Woodbine.

A win in tonight’s $50,000 Open Pace with the John Kopas-trained Keystone Horatio marked a special moment in driver Randy Waples’ career.

After pocket pulling around the first turn, Keystone Horatio settled on top after a :26.3 opener. The millionaire pacer carved out the remaining fractions of :55 and 1:23.1 en route to a three-quarter length triumph in 1:50.3 giving Waples his 5,000th career win.

Hyperion Hanover (Rick Zeron) rallied off second-over cover for second while favourite Dali (Luc Ouellette) came on for show.

The winning four-year-old son of Rustler Hanover-Keystone Havoc has captured three of his last four starts at the Open level for the Estate Of George F Hempt Trust of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. In sum, Keystone Horatio has won seven times in 22 starts this year banking over $200,000.

Waples has recorded 277 of his 5,000 victories this year while earning over $7.4 million.

To view Saturday's results, click here.

(With files from WEG)