Trotting mare Torches Angel and pacing mare Eat Me Up shared the spotlight on Wednesday night at The Raceway at the Western Fair District, winning their respective $7,500 Preferred 3 assignments.
Eat Me Up ($2.90) delivered as the 2-5 favourite in the Fillies & Mares Preferred 3 Pace earlier on the card with Jonathan Drury catch-driving for Canada's season-leading trainer Richard Moreau.
With the inside post advantage over foes stacked five-deep into the first turn, Eat Me Up established the lead off the gate and led wire-to-wire while trailing tier starter Ostinato followed one length behind and Cards That Count finished third. The fractions were :28.3, :59 and 1:28 with the final time in 1:57.1.
The win was Eat Me Up's second this year and her seventh top-three finish from 13 starts. The six-year-old Mach Three mare now boasts 18 wins in her career and $392,649 in purse earnings for owner David Ratchford of North Sydney, N.S.
Moreau also sent out the favourite in the co-featured Preferred 3 Trot with Rival Seelster and Drury rallying off the cover of Torches Angel ($7.10) into the stretch, but coming up half a length short to the mare. Torches Angel and driver Billy Davis Jr. prevailed in 1:59 flat for trainer Paul Belanger Jr.
Keystone Orion retook the lead through a :28.4 opening quarter and continued to front the field past the half in :59.1. Meanwhile, Torches Angel advanced first up from third and she headed Keystone Orion at the 1:28.3 third quarter mark before holding off even-money Rival Seelster. Thor Seelster followed the outer flow and finished over five lengths behind in third after starting from the second tier.
Torches Angel is owned by Michel Grenier of Gatineau, Que. The five-year-old daughter of Angus Hall sports a season's summary reading 2-6-2 in 15 outings and now has 13 wins lifetime as she nears the $100,000 earnings mark.
The win was part of a driving triple for Davis Jr. and the first-half of his Daily Double sweep, which he completed with Larry Johnson's Prism Seelster ($9) in the finale.
In other action, 11-year-old Mach It Paid ($8.10) notched his 60th career win in a $5,000 claiming pace. Bob McClure drove the son of Mach Three, the winningest horse on the 10-race card, to the 1:57.4 front-end victory for owner and trainer Miroslaw Czupa of Georgetown, Ont.
To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Wednesday Results - Western Fair.