Goodbye Ceia Later, with Logan Gillis catch-driving, interrupted trainer/driver Nathan Sobey's early Friday evening win streak at Century Mile with a last-to-first rally to prevail in a photo finish in the $12,500 Fillies & Mares Preferred Handicap Pace.
Sobey, who won four of the first five races on the card, just missed in the fourth race feature when his mare Outlaw Sharktastic fought off favoured outside assignee Stash The Cookies and Dave Kelly through panels of :27, :54.1 and 1:23.2, but was collared by the late-closing Goodbye Ceia Later and Gillis in the final strides of the 1:52.3 mile. The winning Chris Lancaster trainee circled the field of half a dozen distaffers with a :28.2 final frame over the 'good' track for the mild 7-1 upset. Outlaw Sharktastic, a runner-up to Stash The Cookies in the last two Mares Preferreds, settled for second again, finishing a neck back. Longshot Pirate Booty and Terry Kaufman finished third off the cover of Stash The Cookies more than two lengths behind.
Stepping up to take on the top mares off a win in her Nov. 30 return to Alberta after competing at Fraser Downs this fall, Goodbye Ceia Later picked up her seventh seasonal victory from 23 starts. Lancaster co-owns the five-year-old mare by Vertical Horizon out of Ba Bye Ceia Later with Velda Olding of Abbotsford, B.C. An 18-time winner in her career, Goodbye Ceia Later has accumulated more than $145,000 in purse earnings. She paid $17.10 to win.
Sobey kicked off the eight-race program with wins in the first three races courtesy of three-year-old colt My Dragon Rocks ($18.80) and four-year-old mares Amped Up Annie ($6), who was claimed for $10,500 by Kelly Hoerdt, and Diva Amour ($2.60), who earned her third straight victory. He also took the fifth race with six-year-old mare Cheese Whiz ($6.60), who made it two wins in a row.
In other action, repeat winner Chris Stableton ($36.80) nosed out Jingle Inmy Pocket in 1:58.3 to take the sixth race and give Preston Shaw back-to-back winning drives aboard the Orianna Scheck trainee since his return to Alberta in recent weeks. Alberta's 2016 Rising Star Award winner has moved back west after a few years training, driving and shoeing horses in Ontario.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Century Mile.
(Standardbred Canada)