Preferred pacers and trotters highlighted the Monday afternoon card of harness racing at the Raceway at Western Fair District in London, Ont.
Trotting mare Thundering Ovation could only muster four wins in all of 2013, and just over two months into 2014 she's almost matched that total. Thundering Ovation was picked as the public choice in Monday's $8,000 Preferred 3 Handicap Trot and didn't disappoint. With driver J.R. Plante at the lines, the five-year-old Thunder Road mare made every call a winning one en route to the five-length 2:00.2 score.
Gerald Sloan trains Thundering Ovation for Joanne & Courtney Sloan of Harley, Ont. It was Thundering Ovation's third win of the year in eight starts.
Two races later, Ross Battin guided homebred Lawmen Reign to a second straight win. After winning wire-to-wire at a lower class last week, Battin stepped up the Rambaran pacer to the Preferred 3 class and the veteran responded with a solid late brush to take home the winner's share of the $7,000 purse in 1:57.2.
Battin co-owns Lawmen Reign with his wife Margaret.
A second $7,000 Preferred 3 Pace was also carded on Monday, and was decided in a similar fashion. Kendal Gustav was racing in the Preferred 2 class since winning at Preferred 3 in early January, and in his first start back in the lower class he found the competition to his liking.
With regular pilot Lorne House at the controls, Kendal Gustav made a three-wide backstretch brush past the early pacesetters and cruised to 1:58 one-length win.
Scott McNiven trains Kendal Gustav, a five-year-old Life Sign gelding, and co-owns along with Tom Brodhurst of London and Shirley Griffin of St. Thomas, Ont.
To view the charted results from Western Fair, click the following link: