An accident marred the first race on an abbreviated Friday night, Dec. 27 card of harness racing at The Raceway at Western Fair District with participants avoiding serious injury, according to racetrack personnel.
The accident occurred past the third quarter mark in the opening race for $8,000 claimers when four-year-old pacer Parsons, driven by Travis Henry, broke stride from the pocket and caused interference to the trailing horses as he backed through the field. During the mishap, Backstreet Boogie fell while racing on the outside and unseated his driver, Garrett Rooney.
Track officials reported that Backstreet Boogie was led off the track under his own power after the race. The AGCO Veterinarian reported Backstreet Boogie sustained only minor abrasions, but the horse was added to the Vet List as a precaution.
A resilient Rooney bounced back from the spill, returning to action for his next scheduled drive in the third race and later winning back-to-back races with Darryl Laver trainees Sant Ambroggio and Im Outrageous Too.
That first race was won by 1-9 favourite Jimsun and Lorne House, who were unaffected by the incident while leading wire-to-wire in 2:02.4 over the 'good' track, with Keystone Taz and Jason Ryan avoiding the breaker along the pylons and finishing second by 1-1/2 lengths.
Parsons went on to finish fourth and was placed last for causing interference while offstride. Other horses interferred with included Sand Walker (Dwain Spitzig), Mirimachi David (Austin Sorrie) and Beck Jr (Nick Steward).
Friday's 10-race card was cut short with a power outage in the region later resulting in the cancellation of the evening's final race.
To view Friday's complete harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Western Fair Raceway.
(Standardbred Canada)