Trotting titan Arch Madness earned his first victory of his eight-year-old campaign in the $35,000 Open Handicap at Harrah's Chester on Friday
.
The heavy favourite settled into fifth after an outside Post 7 start in his second seasonal start while Equity (Yannick Gingras), Tagyoureit Hanover (Corey Callahan), and Take My Picture (David Miller) all took turns on the front through fractions of :26.4, :55.3 and 1:24.
As the field passed the third quarter mark, trainer-driver Trond Smedshammer sent Arch Madness three-wide around the first over Pembroke Prayer (Ron Pierce) and stormed home to win in 1:53.4 by three-quarters of a length. And Heez Perfect (Tim Tetrick) closed well from the back of the pack to finish second. Equity finished two and a half length behind in third.
Arch Madness paid $3.40 to win for the 28th time in his career. The two-time O'Brien Award winner is the richest Canadian-sired trotter in harness racing history with $3,288,988 earned. The Balanced Image-Armbro Archer gelding is owned by Barry Goldstein as Willow Pond LLC and Marc Goldberg.
Driver Tim Tetrick won five races on the 14-dash card.