With temperatures hovering around the freezing mark on Friday, March 21 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Fortify provided some stretch drive sizzle during the morning's qualifying session.
Friday's fourth flight featured eight pacers with stout resumes — including eight-year-old Fortify, whose $902,000-plus bankroll topped those in the field. Driver Louis-Philippe Roy positioned Fortify in the pocket behind Control The Gold and driver Jody Jamieson through fairly modest fractions of :30, 1:00 and 1:29.3. The switch was flipped for the final quarter, and Fortify flew home in :25.4 for a 1:55.3 winning effort. Control The Gold finished nearly three lengths back, with Momas Son Byrne (Jonathan Drury) rounding out the top trio.
Rene Bourassa trains Fortify, a gelded son of Sweet Lou - Cant Stop Me Now, for owners Daniel Gaudreault of Mont-Joli, Que. and Ecuries Maguire Inc. of Sainte-Marie, Que.
The full video stream is available below.
A reminder that Mohawk goes dark from Sunday, March 23 through to Friday, March 28. Live harness racing at Mohawk resumes on Saturday, March 29 with the next qualifying session slated for Monday, March 31.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).
(Standardbred Canada; photo of Fortify winning the Brian Paquet Memorial at Hippodrome 3R)