Swinging Beauty made her 2013 debut for the powerful Gregg McNair Stable and took top honours in the Mares Open Pace at Pompano Park on Easter Sunday night (March 31).
With Stuart Sowerby in the bike, the five-year-old daughter of Art Major came first up, wore down the pacesetter (Southwind Trini, driven by Wally Hennessey) in mid-stretch, and secured the length-and-a-half victory in 1:53.1.
Abbey Road Hanover (driven by Kevin Wallis) was third, while Fiesta Camcun (Stephane Lareau) was fourth. Windows Online (Rick Plano) finished seventh, while the 7-10 public choice, Bombilla Hanover (Bruce Ranger), made a miscue and finished last.
In a post-race interview, McNair said, “We qualified her twice — the first one wasn’t so good — and she was very sharp the second time around, pacing her final half in :56. Although Swinging Beauty has faced some of the top mares in training, we didn’t take this competition lightly. There were some very tough mares in here, but she was ‘ready, willing and able’ to go a big trip to win, no doubt about it.”
The win also proved to be icing on the cake for owners William Switala and James Martin, as their entry of OK Commander and Aracache Hanover finished 1-2 in Saturday’s Open Handicap Pace.
(With files from Pompano)