Tahuya Gameday and driver John Abbott crossed to the lead quickly off the gate, steering clear of the early race disruptions, and led wire-to-wire to win the $35,000 final of the Marian Young Memorial on Friday night (March 31) at Fraser Downs.
The stakes event, which is for three-year-old B.C. bred fillies that are non-winners of $30,000 lifetime, got off to a rocky start with I Too (David Hudon) breaking stride from post five and getting hooked up with outside gate-gapper Island Hawk (Kevin Anderson), jostling Hudon onto the track. The 2-5 favourite, Sustainedintensity (Serge Masse), also broke stride in the early going and caused interference to Juana B A Tahuya (Jim Marino).
Meanwhile, 3-1 second choice Tahuya Gameday took the lead from post six and led the four-pack of fillies still in contention through fractions of :28, :57.4 and 1:27.1. One of her stablemates, Tahuya Countess (Scott Knight), followed in second with Ladies From Hell (John Hudon) making a move from third at the third quarter pole and Orangevale Gazette (Paul Davies) following in fourth.
Ladies From Hell improved her position, but could not catch Tahuya Gameday, who drew off down the stretch to win by more than six lengths in a career-best time of 1:56.4. Tahuya Countess finished third ahead of Orangevale Gazette.
Erik Neyhart trains and co-owns the winning filly, a homebred daughter of Mystery Chase out of Under Five, with Juan Samper of Langley, B.C. Tahuya Gameday is now undefeated in her three sophomore starts with an overall four-for-seven record and career earnings of $30,187.
In the top $11,000 fillies and mares conditioned/Open class, B.C.'s 2016 Aged Mare of the Year Phone Terror was the talk of the toteboard at odds of 4-5 and she did not disappoint her backers.
The outside assignee got away second-to-last in the field scratched down to five starters. After opening fractions of :27.3 and :56.3, trainer/driver Serge Masse made his move with the eight-year-old daughter of Western Terror and Miss Lex. She rushed up alongside the leading Tahiti Seelster (David Hudon) as the mares raced by the 1:25.3 third quarter mark and won going away by two and three-quarter lengths in a season's-best 1:54.1. Closing from the pocket, Jet To The Beach (Glenn White) out-sprinted Tahiti Seelster to nab the runner-up honours.
Lucy Raymond owns the 48-time career winner, who is approaching the half-million dollar earnings mark.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Fraser Downs.