North America Cup eligible Kokanee Seelster was a blowout winner in the $75,000 Keith Linton Memorial Stakes for three-year-old pacing colts on Sunday, April 3 as Fraser Downs wrapped up its 2015-16 meet.
The Camluck-Kiddie Cocktail crushed the competition, winning by 11-1/4 lengths in 1:53.3, with Paul Davies along for the ride.
Kokanee Seelster rushed from fourth to first after a quick :26.1 opening quarter and never looked back. The 3-5 favourite began to separate from the rest of the field through middle fractions of :55.2 and 1:24, and extended his leading margin into the double digits down the stretch.
Meanwhile, first over Bobby Dazzler (Clint Warrington Jr.) dropped into the gaping two-hole ahead of early speedster Its Eds Idea (Serge Masse), leaving Credit Risk (Jim Marino) clear sailing in the outer flow. One Big Cat (Brandon Campbell) had followed in the three-hole before moving out behind Credit Risk and then out-finished him in the race for second-place. Bobby Dazzler was fourth and Whatkindofchance (Kevin Anderson) completed the top five finisher order.
After the race, a claim of foul was launched against Bobby Dazzler by Bill Davis, driver of post nine trailing tier starter Bettors Mark, who finished eighth. Bobby Dazzler made a break at the start of the race from post one, but judges ruled he did not interfere with trailing horses.
The 2016 Keith Linton winner is owned by trainer Ming Siu of Richmond, B.C. and Edmund Lui of Parkhill, Ont. His connections have made the first sustaining payment on March 15 to keep him eligible to the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup, which will be contested on June 18 at Mohawk Racetrack.
Kokanee Seelster now has three wins and one second-place in four sophomore starts, with seasonal earnings of $45,950. Last year, he had top two finishes in half of his 10 starts to bank $37,000 while racing in Ontario, where he took his mark of 1:53 in an Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots event at Mohawk Racetrack.
The final Open event of the Fraser Downs meet was won by 6-5 favourite Prairie Illusion, who went wire-to-wire (:27.2, :56.4, 1:25, 1:54.3) in the $10,500 distaff pace for Davis and trainer/owner Heather Sifert. The seven-year-old Mach Three-Twin B Magical mare rebounded for her fourth win in her last five Open starts. Jim Marino trainees Shesgotdawoogies (Marino) and Wrapped To Go (Brandon Campbell) rounded out the top three finishers.
Davis and Travis Bowman each drove four winners on the closing day card.
Live racing is scheduled to resume at Fraser Downs in October.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Fraser Downs.