Taurasi had things his own way in this week's edition of the $36,000 Preferred Pace at Woodbine Mohawk Park, streaking to his fifth straight win to highlight a successful Saturday night for the Richard Moreau stable.
With the field reduced to five after the late scratch of Points North and with no foes firing off the gate, 1-5 favourite Taurasi and four-time Saturday night winning driver Doug McNair took off to the turn and never looked back, stealing soft fractions early with panels clocked in :27.4 and :57.2. As they cruised to three-quarters in 1:26, Travis Cullen sent Codename Cigar Box first-up with the trailing Cold Creek Queso and Tyler Jones following suit. But no one could catch Taurasi as he sprinted home to an easy win in 1:52.3. Cold Creek Queso won the race for place 1-3/4 lengths behind the winner, getting up over pocket-sitter Momas Son Byrne and Jonathan Drury. Rockabilly Rebel N and Brett MacDonald finished fourth and Codename Cigar Box completed the order of finish.
Taurasi joined the Moreau stable last December with a close third-place finish in the Preferred before reeling off five wins in a row for owners Brad Grant and Alagna Racing LLC. The five-year-old Racing Hill-Voluminous gelding, who sports a sub-1:48 lifetime mark, now boasts 15 wins from 34 starts and earnings amounting to $455,321.
Taurasi paid $2.40 to win and $2.10 to place. There was no show wagering.
The victory was one of five of the night for Moreau, who also teamed up earlier on the 11-race card with McNair for back-to-back wins with the Grant-owned pacers Hungry Man ($3.40) and then Mr Ibiza N ($4) topping stablemate Kopi Luwak. Moreau's successful Saturday started with an upset victory courtesy of Robert Jones's Sometime Somewhere ($17.70), with Brett MacDonald driving, and ended with another longshot bomb in the form of Jessica and Ed Hayter's Control The Gold ($84.60), with Sylvain Filion working out the surprise score in the finale.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Standardbred Canada)
a very surprising statistic
There still hasn't been a sub-1:50 mile this year at Mohawk or The Meadowlands. All 4 of them occurred on 5/8-mile tracks. In fact, the 10 fastest race miles in 2024 ALL occurred on 5/8-mile tracks!