Prairie Fortune, driven by John MacDonald, made a sweeping and devastating three-deep move around the final turn and went on to score a handy two-length victory Monday evening in Pompano Park’s $12,000 Open Handicap Trot.
The win—his second in a row—came at the expense of Sooo Handsome, handled by Rick Plano. The early leader, Boli, with Wally Hennessey in the bike, was third after cutting through much of the mile on this windy night while Swan Handicap finished fourth. Modern Mercury picked up the minor award in the septet.
At the outset, Boli pushed the wings of the starting gate out of the way and blasted his way to the front and rambled over to the opening marker in :29.2. With the tailwind now coming into play, the pace picked up a bit during the second quarter and, with Diamond Dagger on the attack, Boli kept that challenger at bay by reaching the half in :57.4.
At this point, Prairie Fortune, beginning from post seven, wended his way second over into fourth and anxious to strike.
Heading into the final turn and a few strides short of the 1:26.4 third station, Boli was in the process of extinguishing the challenge of Diamond Dagger but had no answer for Prairie Fortune, who was on a “double-bubble” attack, sweeping into the lead turning for home and unchallenged thereafter for the handy win in 1:55.2.
After the race, driver John MacDonald said, “I really don’t have too much to say. He’s sharp right now, feeling his oats and he can really cover some ground when he gets room to roam. It was windy out there tonight, but that doesn’t seem to bother him. Nothing does! He knows what he’s supposed to do and he just does it! Give the horse all the credit. He just took me for the ride tonight!”
Prairie Fortune is now 2-for-3 this year and 29-for-53 in the win column career-wise for trainer Mike Deters, who co-owns with breeder Laurie Lee Poulin. He’s banked $216,545 career-wise. Prairie Fortune paid $3.40 to win.
Racing continues on Tuesday night with a pair of trotting features—the first featuring a well matched field of eight in the $10,000 Open 2 Trot and the second the Open Trot for mares only.
Southwind Stryker is the 9-5 morning line favourite in the first feature and will have Wally Hennessey in the bike while Divination looks for her second straight win in the “ladies only” feature. She is 5-2 morning line favourite and will have owner-trainer-driver John MacDonald handling her lines.
Post time is set for 7:20 p.m.
(Pompano Park)