A stakes star from Atlantic Canada making her Ontario debut and performers returning to the local scene headlined the qualifying action on Saturday (March 18) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
After posting 20 wins during her two- and three-year-old campaigns — including 14 straight as a sophomore — Therealprincess made her first appearance for her new connections. The daughter of Source Of Pride - Deviliciously Good posted a wire-to-wire in her four-year-old debut, carving out fractions of :27.4, 1:00.1 and 1:30.2 before sprinting home in :28.4 to trip the timer in 1:59.1.
Jonathan Drury engineered the winning effort behind Therealprincess, who was purchased after her sophomore stakes season concluded by Ontario's Frank Brundle. Carmen Auciello now trains.
The fastest time this morning came from a trotter; not just any trotter, however, one of the fastest trotters in track history. Logan Park, who boasts a mark of 1:51.2 and fell a length short of Locatelli in his 1:50.4 track record tying score the last time he raced, made his five-year-old debut during the Saturday session. Doug McNair pointed Logan park to the lead and the duo was never seriously tested. A six-length lead at the top of the stretch widened to 10 at the wire, with the mile timed in 1:57.3.
A winner of 12 races and more than $720,000 lifetime, Logan Park (Archangel - Rite Outa The Park) is now trained by Kyle Fellows for Outofthepark Stable of Rockwood, Reg Higgs of Strathroy and Arpad Szabo of Bradford, Ont.
Logan Park's former stablemate Warrawee Vital was also making his five-year-old debut in qualifying action, but he was upstaged by flashy four-year-old Magical Arthur. A 1:55 winner last week, Magical Arthur and driver James MacDonald sat third for the majority of today's test and then angled out in the stretch in a attempt to haul down pacesetter Arties Ideal (Damien MacLellan). With a :29.1 final panel, Magical Arthur forged to the lead and held off Warrawee Vital (Trevor Henry) by a nose in 1:57.4. Arties Ideal was a good third, just a half-length back.
Anthony Beaton trains Magical Arthur (Artspeak - Lido Magic) for breeder/owner David Lumsden of Ancaster, Ont. The pacer owns a mark of 1:50.3 taken at three with $343,010 in earnings.
The full video stream of the qualifying session is available below.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).