Dragin The Wagon overcame his outside eight-hole assignment on Sunday at Flamboro Downs for back-to-back wins in the featured $11,500 Preferred 2 Handicap Trot while the Shepherd brothers took turns in the spotlight all night long.
Trained by Jeff Byron and driven by Aaron Byron, Dragin The Wagon hustled to command into the first turn and never looked back, setting fractions of :28, :58.1 and 1:27.3 en route to victory in 1:58.1. Fox Valley Veto gained ground from mid-field on the backside and chased the winner home one and a quarter lengths behind, with Muscle Matters finishing third.
Sent postward as the 8-5 second choice, Dragin The Wagon paid $5.30 to win.
The eight-year-old Angus Hall gelding, a 41-time career winner with nearly $315,000 banked in purses, is owned by Cary, David and Michael Cantelon.
A pair of $8,500 Preferred 3 pacing races went to ICR Racing's homebred Rebel Voyager ($4.20) in a 1:55.3 romp, with Bob McClure aboard for trainer Dean Nixon, and back-to-back winner HP Patriote ($31.20) in rein to Robert Shepherd in 1:55.1, for conditioner Gerard Demers and owners Les Ecuries GLD Inc. and Claude Hamel.
That Preferred win was one of three sulky-sitting successes on the card for Robert Shepherd, who pulled ahead of McClure in the national driver standings as he brought his total 2018 win count to 60 (Louis-Philippe Roy, a two-time Sunday winner at Rideau, moved into second-place with 59 wins while McClure now sits just one behind in third). In his final win of the night, Shepherd paired up with his brother, Patrick, Flamboro's current leading trainer who completed his own hat trick on the 11-race program.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Flamboro Downs.