With a patient drive by Justin Irvine, Princess Rougarou circled the field to take the throne in the Northville Downs’ featured $10,800 Mares Open Pace on Friday night (April 21).
Eight-year-old Princess Rougarou (Big Bad John - Hammers Princess) and Irvine got away seventh in the full field of nine pacing mares. Early pacesetter Shes Cruising Home (Drew Neill) put up the early fractions in :27.2, :56.4 and 1:26.4 before succumbing to pressure by a parked out Cousin Margie (Lindsay Moen) in the final turn. The aforementioned Princess Rougarou then swooped up three-wide from the three-quarters and around the last turn, and launched by the tiring field to open up and win by a 5-1/4-length margin over pocket-sitter Artistic Cut (Charles Taylor), who overcame late traffic to get up for second, while Cousin Margie hung on for third. Princess Rougarou stopped the timer in 1:56.2 and secured her 30th career victory.
Princess Rougarou is owned and trained by Will Johnson and was bred in Michigan by George Hensley Jr.
On the night, driver Jason Merriman had a driving triple while drivers Drew Neill and Justin Irvine had driving doubles.
In the final race on the card, driver Drew Neill’s charge Full Of Sharks ducked the starting gate, took a bad step and went down at the start of the race sending Neill to the ground. Full Of Sharks was assisted back to the paddock by outrider Nicole Stroup while Neill was attended to by paramedics on-site. According to trainer Craig Wolfe, Full Of Sharks suffered some abrasions, but is expected to be okay. Neill is reported to be very sore, but expects to be alright as well.
Racing at The Ville resumes on Saturday, April 22 at 7 p.m. Live harness racing continues every Friday and Saturday evening through Sept. 30.
(Northville Downs)