With a number of Woodbine Mohawk Park's current upper echelon competitors entered in series action on Saturday, March 16, top class terror Taurasi found himself without a place to race this weekend.
His connections felt a tightener was in order, and thus Taurasi was tightened with a qualifier at Mohawk on Friday, March 15.
Regular pilot Doug McNair sat the speedster in third as Lady Get Lucky (Trevor Henry) handled front-end duties through fractions of :29.4, :59.2 and 1:28.1. McNair right-lined Taurasi after that marker, and powered home in a facile :26.3 to trip the timer nearly two lengths the best in a 1:55.3 performance. Ron (Jody Jamieson) edged out Lady Get Lucky to come in second.
Taurasi (Racing Hill - Voluminous) is trained by Richard Moreau for owner Brad Grant of Milton, Ont. and Alagna Racing LLC of Jackson, N.J. The pacer has dominated the Preferred class since shipping north, winning six of seven local starts and his last six straight.
Fourth-place finishers don't often get an honourable mention here, but Ario Hanover had a special set of hands for his five-year-old debut in that qualifier won by Taurasi. Hall of Famer Randy Waples has made his fair share of appearances at Mohawk over the past few seasons, but not in a charted line. Waples donned his traditional dark blue and yellow colours for his first charted mile since Sept. 2022.
Waples told Trot Insider that his return to action isn't an indication he's headed back to the driving colony in a full-time capacity, but his name might appear on the qualifying entries from time to time.
The session of qualifiers can be viewed in its entirety below.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).
(Standardbred Canada)