A pair of Preferred events highlighted Grand River Raceway’s Tuesday night program and Nobananas took
home the lion’s share of the $12,800 purse in the trotting dash while Xlb Patrick was the prevalent pacer.
Nobananas scored his fourth consecutive win tonight in the Preferred 2 Trot for trainer Kim Matthews, who shares ownership with Murray Cox of Rockwood, Ont.
With Aaron Byron in the bike, Nobananas got away fifth from Post 8 as Indys Kylee (Stuart Sowerby) led to the first quarter in :29. Fan favourite The Original (David Boughton) moved up for the lead while Nobananas picked up cover in the form of Bjs Fancy (Kelly Sheppard) en route to the halfway point in 1:00.1. Bjs Fancy was on top by half a length at three-quarters in 1:30.2 but Nobananas rolled three-wide and he used a :30.2 final quarter to take the lead in deep stretch and pull away to a two and a half-length score in 2:01.
Bjs Fancy stayed for second while Oaklea Nolan (Paul Walker) finished strong for the bronze medal.
A winner of four races in six starts, Nobananas has earned $33,100 this year. The win was his 30th of his career lifting his lifetime earnings to over $317,000.
Half-mile specialist Xlb Patrick marked his 55th career victory in the $12,800 co-featured Preferred 2 Pace for local trainer Mark Austin and Mark Cecile of Windsor, Ont. The veteran campaigner is a former Pacer of the Year recipient at Grand River Raceway and is approaching $600,000 in lifetime earnings.
In rein to Trevor Henry, Xlb Patrick carved out panels of :28.2, :58.3 and 1:27.4 en route to victory in 1:57 over Tipper Too (Corey Giles) and favourite Giddy Up Lucky (Paul Mackenzie).
Xlb Patrick, a Davids Pass gelding, scored his third win of ’09 lifting his seasonal earnings to $37,312.
To view Tuesday’s results, click here.
(With files from Grand River Raceway)