It was all Thatll Be Franny in the $12,500 Fillies & Mares Preferred Pace at Western Fair Raceway on Wednesday as the popular eight-year-old miss was a wide-open repeat winner
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Driven by Doug McNair, 3-5 favourite and two-time defending class champ Thatll Be Franny was taken back into fifth early on through a :28.1 opening quarter and tipped third over into the outer flow at the :57.1 half-mile mark. Making a big backstretch brush, the Kenneth Gowan trainee was just heads apart from the leading Roca Rei (Mike Horner) and first over Farmers Tuition (Trevor Henry) by the next marker, timed in 1:26.3, and rolled on by en route to a six length victory in 1:55.4. Farmers Tuition held off second over Pink Kangaroo (Scott Wray) for runner-up honours.
Thatll Be Franny paid $3.20 to win for the sixth time in 10 seasonal starts. The eight-year-old Thatll Be Me-Little Franny mare is owned and bred by Audrey Crawford of Wallacetown, Ont. In 69 career starts, Thatll Be Franny has put together a record reading 10-10-6 while banking $74,524.
Earlier on the card, trainer Ron Molyneux celebrated his first career win with three-year-old pacing filly So Spicy. Molyneux sent out the favoured Lis Mara-Spicy Dumpling miss for the third time in the first race with Jason Brewer driving, and she cruised wire-to-wire in 2:01.2 while holding off the pocket-pulling Brightside Motion (Ryan Holliday) by a head. So Spicy paid $5.50 to win for the first time in five career attempts. The 66-year-old Sparta, Ont. conditioner also co-owns the filly with Cindy Molyneux.
To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Wednesday Results - Western Fair Raceway.