Former Maritime trotting star Waiting On A Woman extended his winning streak to five on Wednesday night at Pompano Park with a hard-fought win in 1:54.4 for Wally Hennessey.
The five-year-old gelded son of Northern Bailey won for the eighth time in nine 2013 starts -- he suffered a “DNF” line due to broken equipment in his only loss.
Waiting On A Woman held off the Ontario-owned Mystical Starlight, handled by Joe Pavia Jr. in her season's debut, by three-quarters of a length following wired fractions of :26.4, :56.3 and 1:26.1.
Florida-bred Lugar, with Bruce Ranger, finished third, followed by My Man and Ill Tell You What. Spring Goal and Spin Spanky Spin completed the roster.
Trainer Travis Kolaczynski admitted being a bit nervous after the quick opening quarter.
“A few weeks ago, I got goosebumps from the excitement of his 1:53.2 performance," he said. "Tonight, I got goosebumps from nervousness when I saw that :26.4 opening quarter. He’s a great horse though, and he showed his courage when it counted.”
Hennessey agreed.
“That opener did take some sting out of him -- after all, he was off a week --and he was a bit tired near the wire, but he was very game -- tired but game -- at the end," said the reinsman. "He really gets over the ground nicely...very solid!”
Waiting On A Woman has now tallied $40,250 so far this year for the New Jennaration LLC and $116,370 lifetime on the strength of his 29 wins in 52 career starts.
The Open 2 Trot went to Celebrity Legacy and driver Bruce Ranger in an identical time as the Open 1 -- 1:54.4.
Owned by trainer Stewart Nemiro, recovering from a training accident a few weeks ago, Celebrity Legacy left alertly for the lead, yielded for the garden journey as Shes All In and Rick Plano carved up numbers of :27.2, :57.1 and 1:25.3, and squeaked by in the final stages to score by a neck.
Surface Tension (Dan Daley), Tamarack Hanover (Stephane Lareau) and Distracting Beauty (Kevin Wallis) picked up the final three purse cheques in the field of seven.
For Celebrity Legacy, a seven-year-old son of Windsongs Legacy, it was his third win of the campaign in 11 starts sending his yearly bounty to $19,120. He’s banked $211,431 lifetime.
(With files from Pompano Park)