A trip to London turned out to be a memorable one for driver Ryan Holliday, who rallied Wind Blast to a 1:59 triumph and nabbed the 1,000th win of his driving career in the process.
Holliday, who joined the ‘white pant’ club in 2008, mapped out a second-over trip for Wind Blast before brushing by foes in the late going en route to securing the milestone win.
A career winner of more than $6.6 million in purse earnings, Holliday had enjoyed 100-win seasons in each of the last four years.
The Monday evening feature – the $11.500 Preferred 2 for pacers – went to Pretty Handsome in gate-to-wire fashion in a time of 1:55.4 for driver Nick Steward and trainer Andrew McCabe.
Steward hustled the favourite to the early lead, and together they sailed through panels of :28.4, :58.3 and 1:26.4 before using a :29-second closing quarter to seal the deal. The four-year-old son of Mach Three-Pretty Thing won by 2-1/4 lengths over Darkest Secret. Boomboom Ballykeel rounded out the Trifecta ticket.
Glenview Livestock Ltd of Wallenstein, Ont. owns the career winner of $155,965. Last year’s OSS Grassroots champion has won 14 of 22 races along the way.
Reel captured the $8,500 Preferred 3 for horse and gelding pacers for the tandem of driver J Harris and trainer Tim Myers.
The gelding muscled to the top at the quarter in :27.2, and he proceeded to chop out middle splits of :56.4 and 1:27 before getting home in :31 to win by a head over Hal N Sammy in 1:58. Acefortyfourtalon was third.
Sent off as the 3-2 favourite, the eight-year-old son of Shadow Play-Desir registered his 28th lifetime win while pushing his career earnings over $186,000 for trainer Myers and co-owner Michael Hale.
To view results for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Results – The Raceway at Western Fair District.