Veteran pacer Papiamento picked up his second straight win for his current connections on April 17 at Flamboro Downs, and his latest tally is the 50th in his consistent career.
Sent off as the 1-5 choice in his test against $8,000 claimers on Thursday, Papiamento pocketed up early for driver Jason Ryan behind Choreopgrapher (Scott Coulter) and then quickly took over once the field of nine headed down the backstretch for the first time.
After fractions of :29.1, :58.3 and 1:27.1, Papiamento pulled away from his rivals to win by more than three lengths in 1:56.2. Longshot Macho Polo raced gamely to finish second for driver Dale Spence, with Fern Hill Breeze (Travis Henry) rounding out the top trio. The winner returned $2.50 on a $2 win wager.
Shayne Barrington of Cambridge, Ont. trains and co-owns Papiamento along with Kayla Hendry of Rockwood, Ont. The 11-year-old altered son of Somebeachsomewhere - Keystone Dawn is no stranger to Hendry, as she trained the pacer for 29 starts over his nine- and 10-year-old seasons.
After 298 career appearances, Papiamento sports a summary of 50-27-37 with $293,267 in earnings and a mark of 1:51.3 taken 290 starts ago as a two-year-old over the Harrah's Philadelphia five-eighths mile oval.
To view the results for the Thursday night card of harness racing outside of Hamilton, click the following link: Thursday Results - Flamboro Downs.
(Standardbred Canada; photo of Papiamento from a previous win)