Trumpt In Hanover completed a sweep of the elimination and $20,000 final of the Clarence 'Sugar' Gagnon Memorial Stakes on Sunday with a career-best open length victory in the feature event at Fraser Downs.
Favourite Trumpt In Hanover and driver Serge Masse settled away seventh off the gate as Jolt Of Whiskey (Joe Hudon) established the early lead and fronted the field of nine through opening panels of :27.2 and :56.
As the field headed down the backstretch, the parked out Mr Prospector (Brad Watt), the other elimination winner, leap-frogged around first over challenger Big N Bad (Jim Marino) before Masse made his move and sent Trumpt In Hanover three-wide.
Trumpt In Hanover swept to command en route to the 1:25 third quarter station before drawing off to win by eight and a half lengths in 1:54 flat. Procrastinatinpeat (David Hudon) and Bobbysslackkeystar (Michael Munoz) came on for second and third.
Trumpt In Hanover paid $3.60 to win.
The four-year-old son of The Panderosa is now four-for-eight in 2013 with $21,120 banked in purses for Surrey owner and trainer Rod Therres, whose favourite NHL player is Brad Marchand.
The Gagnon Memorial is for three and four-year-old B.C. owned, sired or bred colts that are non-winners of $30,000 lifetime. The race is named in honour of Cloverdale, B.C. horseman Clarence 'Sugar' Gagnon, who passed away in 2011.
Masse is the only driver to win the stake, having also captured last year's inaugeral event with his own trainee Kismyjet.
Earlier on the card in regular racing action, veteran pacer Lil Dude Starrbuck reached a special career milestone with his victory in the $12,500 Open.
The 12-year-old Threefold gelding blasted off the gate from the outside post six and cruised wire-to-wire to notch his 50th career win.
With James Burke in the sulky, Lil Dude Starrbuck carved out fractions of :28, :58 and 1:26.1 en route to the season's best 1:53.4 score. Rock Allstar (Jim Marino) followed one length behind from the pocket while Cowboy Hanover (Kevin Anderson) rounded out the top three finishers.
Lil Dude Starrbuck, who was also last week's Open winner, returned $5.10 to his backers as the second choice.
Trained by David McKellar for Surrey's Lil Dude Ranch, he now boasts a record reading 3-2-1 in six seasonal starts with earnings of $24,260 pushing his career bankroll to more than $710,000.
“Now he can retire on top,” said owner Jerry Renkers after the race. “He deserves it. His first foal will race this year and he will stand stud at Doc Hewlett's farm near Carstairs, Alberta.”
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Fraser Downs.