Favourites dominated in last week’s opening leg of the Celias Counsel Series at Woodbine Racetrack, but that wasn’t the case in Thursday’s second leg.
Jojo On The Gogo pulled off a 6-1 upset in her division, and one race later it was Bop Too The Top erupting for a 30-1 stunner in her $15,000 assignment.
Jojo On The Gogo went to the front and didn’t look back en route to a 1:59.3 score for driver Sylvain Filion. The three-year-old daughter of Donato Hanover-Yankee Dakota led the field through panels of :28.2, :59.1 and 1:29.1 before rallying home in :30.2 to win by a neck over the odds-on favourite, Rockin With Dewey. Frisky Magic was third.
Stephanie & Brian Cassell of Smiths Falls, ON own the trotting lass, who was making her debut for WEG’s leading trainer, Richard Moreau. It was a maiden-breaking score for the career winner of $9,420.
Bop Too The Top was in no hurry in the early stages of the second division, but she was a runaway freight train in the lane for driver Steve Byron.
The three-year-old Muscle Mass-Bop Til You Drop miss swept past six foes in the final quarter en route to her first win of the year. Lily Pad Hanover cut the first quarter in :27.3 before being overtaken by the race favourite, Lipstick Rose, in the backstretch. She led the group through middle splits of :57.2 and 1:27.4 before faltering in deep stretch. Bop Too The Top, found another gear in the lane and used her :29-second closing quarter to win by a one-length margin over Miss Panthers. Her Name Is Lola, a stablemate to the winner, was third.
John Bax trains Bop Too The Top for the partnership of Lorne Johnson, Glengate Farms and Parkhill Stud Farm. It was her first win of the season in three tries, but it goes down as the second victory in 10 lifetime starts. The $7,500 payday lifted her lifetime cash stash to $32,300.
The $25,000 final of the Celias Counsel Series is scheduled to go postward on Monday, May 6.
To view results for Thursday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Thursday Results – Woodbine Racetrack.