While the ultra-hot Ramegade Bruiser will aim to duplicate last week's Spring Pacing Championship success on Saturday night at Woodbine Racetrack, a veteran of the pacing wars shoots for double millionaire status
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After his wire-to-wire triumph in last week’s opening round of the Spring Pacing Championship at Woodbine, no-one expects anything but a repeat from six-year-old Ramegade Bruiser, in this Saturday night’s sequel.
After all, the durable son of Rambaran has won eight of his last 10 starts, and has pocketed almost $170,000 this season already. And with his chief rival in this series, Secrets Nephew, out of action at the moment, he has only five other mature pacers to best in order to take home another tidy $25,000 from the series second leg.
Of those five, Eagle Luck probably represents the most credible threat. The six-year-old gelding returned to racing mid-March after an extended winter break, and took a couple of starts to get his groove back – but a 1:51.1 victory last week in a $35,000 condition event at Woodbine proved he’s coming back into winning form.
Jody Jamieson will be in the bike for Eagle Luck, who is currently listed at 3-1 odds, while Chris Christoforou will do the steering for 2-5 favourite, Ramegade Bruiser.
The open pacers will face off on Saturday night, April 4, in race #2, post time 7:51 p.m. The $91,000 (est.) final of the Spring Pacing Championships is slated for Saturday, April 11.
Stalwart pacing gelding, Escape The Wind, has scored a staggering 51 wins, 22 seconds, and 22 thirds in his six-year, 172-start racing career. Now he’s chasing down another milestone: $2 million in earnings, which he’ll surpass if he is first or second this
coming Saturday in a $40,000 Preferred event at Woodbine racetrack.
Trained and driven from the beginning of his career by WEG driving colony star, Roger Mayotte, nine-year-old Escape The Wind has made brief sojourns south of the border, but has spent most of his time on the ovals at Mohawk and Woodbine. Among his stakes victories were the 2003 Provincial Cup at Windsor Raceway, divisions of the 2003 Bluegrass Stakes and Tattersalls Stakes at the Red Mile, the 2003 Summertime Pacing Series final at Woodbine, a division of the 2004 Aquarius Stakes at the Meadowlands, the $104,500 Pacing Classic at Woodbine in June, 2005, and the $250,000 (US) American National Final at Balmoral Park, that same year. He also defeated Canadian Horse of the Year, Admirals Express, in the $100,000 Invitational Gold Cup at Woodbine in October, 2005, and repeated the feat in the 2007 edition of the Gold Cup, defeating Silent Swing and Tell All. In addition, Escape The Wind was second by a head to No Pan Intended in the 2003 Breeders’ Crown.
For the past two seasons, Escape The Wind has been a regular in the conditioned events for older pacers at the two WEG tracks, where the son of Artiscape – Chicole (by Cam Fella) has rarely taken more than two weeks off. He has set a lifetime mark of 1:48.3 (at age five), and has banked $1,990,146 thus far for the Venture 2000 Stable of Mississauga, Ontario.
Come cheer him on towards his $2 million milestone, Saturday night, April 4, at Woodbine. Escape The Wind will take to the track in race #10, post time 10:39 p.m.
(WEG)