The Ontario Boys Pacing Series kicked off at Woodbine Racetrack on Monday evening, with a pair of $20,000 tilts on tap for the four-year-old Ontario-sired pacers.
Mario Baillargeon hustled Warp Speed to the front in the first division, and the Ben Wallace-trained son of Mach Three didn’t look back en route to a 1:53.3. clocking.
Sent off as the 3-5 choice, the gelding found himself parked three-wide past the quarter pole in :26.4 before touching down on the engine and laying down middle panels of :56.3 and 1:26.2. After controlling things in the middle stages he managed to rocket home in :27.1 to defeat Winter Blues and Shiny Mach.
Owned by Southside CDN Farms Ltd. of Kemptville, ON, Warp Speed picked up his first win of the season in four tries. The six-time winner has pocketed $68,775 in earnings to this point in his career.
Dinner Guest, who was the beneficiary of a front-end speed battle, used last second heroics to take the second division in a time of 1:54 for driver Randy Waples and Chad Schmiedge.
Waples was in no hurry with the son of No Pan Intended, who got away seventh and watched Marquis Player and Just That battle through early fractions of :27.2 and :56.4. Windsun Twister gained a short lead at the three-quarter pole in 1:26.3, but he was picked off in the final strides by a hard-driving Dinner Guest.
Dinner Guest uncorked a :27-second final quarter to post the one-length score over Windsun Twister. Third prize went to HBFS Tommy T.
Round two of the Ontario Boys Pacing Series is scheduled for next Monday evening at Woodbine Racetrack, with the $60,000 (est.) final slated for Monday, March 2.
To view Monday’s results, click here.