Making his first start of 2009 after waging war against the stacked sophomore crop of 2008, On The Brink made his first start of the year a winning one in Tuesday night's co-featured $12,800 Preferred 2 Pace at Grand River Raceway
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Driver J.R. Plante guided the four-year-old Dream Away horse first up against front-end friendly Tipper Too (Corey Giles) through a relatively soft :58.2 half, wore down the pacesetter and held off the late charge of pocket-sitting Rudy Valentino (Trevor Henry) for the 1:56.3 win by half a length. Tipper Too held on for the show spot.
Of the six lifetime wins On The Brink has scored for trainer/co-owner Duane Marfisi and co-owners Aaron Waxman and Alan Aber, five of them have come on a half-mile oval. He now boasts over $224,000 in purses along with the six wins.
Grand River's co-featured race on the card - the $12,800 Preferred 2 Trot - went to Tymal Cherub and trainer-driver Callie Rankin, who engineered a three-wide brush around the leaders at the three-quarter mark before pulling away to a confident three length decision in 1:59.3 over My Rebellious Ways (Nick Henry) and public choice Unleashed Fury (Jim McClure).
Leonard Gamble of Etobicoke owns the five-year-old Mr Lavec-Catchmeanangel gelding, who has three wins in 12 starts on the season - a marked improvement from the 1-for-15 campaign of one year ago.
For Tuesday's charted lines from Grand River, click here.