Mohawk Warrior prevailed off a perfect pocket trip with his stablemate Cajon Lightning closing off cover for second-place in the $18,000 second leg of the Valedictory Series on Saturday night (Dec. 19) at Woodbine Racetrack.
The Valedictory is for three-year-old male pacers that are non-winners of $50,000 lifetime as of Oct. 31. The series final will be held on the Boxing Day matinee program on Dec. 26, which gets underway at 1 p.m.
The top two finishers are both conditioned by Canada's leading trainer Richard Moreau and were round one winners in the series last weekend. With just one division required for the second leg, driver Sylvain Filion opted to stick with inside starter Mohawk Warrior (3-5) while Jonathan Drury picked up the catch-drive on Cajon Lightning (2-1) from post eight.
The pace was set by Rockinonby (Jody Jamieson), who hustled off the gate from post seven and took the lead over Mohawk Warrior. He carved out fractions of :27., :55.2 and 1:23. Meanwhile, Naturescape (Mike Saftic) advanced first over from fifth approaching the half-mile mark, towing up Autumn Series champion Cajon Lightning on his cover. Rockinonby continued to lead the field into the stretch, where Filion pulled Mohawk Warrior from the pocket and took the lead en route to the 1:51.3 victory over the track with a two-second variant. Cajon Lightning came on for second-place, just ahead of Rockinonby.
Mohawk Warrior earned his fourth win in a row since shipping to Woodbine and seventh this year from 22 starts. Milton's Brad Grant owns the Rocknroll Hanover-A And Gs Confusion colt.
After a sharp :25.4 final quarter sealed millionaire status for Grant's Apprentice Hanover last week in his winning return race, the Ben Wallace trainee was back in the spotlight on Saturday night with a victory in the $34,000 Preferred Pace.
Jody Jamieson had the 3-5 favourite following in fifth-place through opening panels of :26.4 and :54.3 before catching the cover of Thunder Steeler (Trevor Henry) on the way to three-quarters in 1:22.1. The five-year-old son of Somebeachsomewhere out of Allamerican Nadia then rallied off cover and closed out a 1:51.2 mile over the off track with a :28.4 final frame. Apprentice Hanover prevailed by three-quarters of a length over race leaders Prescotts Hope (Phil Hudon) and Nirvana Seelster (Rick Zeron).
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Racetrack.