Gerry Hudon and Harold Haining took turns gathering victories during Wednesday’s nine-race program at Northlands Park while the spotlight was on a family of rabbits, which
caused a one-horse spill in the finale.
Hudon engineered front-end victories with a trio of his pupils, all owned by Bill Boden of Vancouver, B.C. He guided four-year-old Artiscape gelding Kouty (2:00.4) to victory in the opener before picking up wins in Races 5 and 6. The resident of Edmonton, Alta. won the $2,900 fifth race feature with Mark Black Cloud (1:59.2), a five-year-old son of Camotion, while Sir Arthur (2:00.1), a three-year-old Artsplace colt, prevailed in the following race.
The training triple bumped Hudon’s win totals to 83 for 2009 and 1,609 lifetime.
Millet’s Harold Haining also captured a third of Wednesday evening’s races, teaming with Hudon for his first in the third dash with two-year-old K B Hercules, a son of As Promised, who broke his maiden in 2:01.4. Hf Thanks Will (2:00) and driver Bill Tainsh, Jr. got the job done in the following fourth race and Brent Grundy won Race 7 with Fly Casual (2:00.1) for Haining.
Haining has recorded 43 of his 189 wins this year.
In other action, a group of mischievous rabbits wreaked havoc in the card’s finale causing Last Chance Buddy to fall in the first turn. Last Chance Buddy (Deb Manning), racing in second, appeared to be spooked by rabbits in the centerfield and veered away from the rail causing interference with Sour Puss (Bill Tainsh, Jr.), who was third on the outside. Manning was dumped from the bike but was up on her feet shortly after. Sour Puss managed to stay on his feet but was pulled up by Tainsh, Jr. Outrider Jackie Beelby quickly collared the loose pacer and no other horses were affected during the incident.
To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click here.