The Marjorie Dumont-trained sisters Watch My Luck and Tajmeallover dominated Alberta's top distaffers with another 1-2 finish in Saturday afternoon's $9,500 Open -- this time in a track record performance.
Watch My Luck, in rein to catch-driver Jim Marino, held off Tajmeallover and J.F. Gagne in a photo finish to set a new track record for older pacing mares of 1:52.4. The five-year-old homebred mare by Camluck out of the As Promised mare Watch Over Me knocked one-fifth of a second off the former divisional record that was held by Feelin Flush (May 2015).
Leaving from the inside post, Watch My Luck was out-sprinted off the gate by G Ts Jamie (Ryan Grundy) from two spots over, but she quickly looped to the lead on the way past the :27.3 quarter mark. As Watch My Luck made her way to the half in :56.1, Remember Terror (Mike Hennessy) took a shot at the leader. However, Watch My Luck forged on to three-quarters in 1:24.3 with her older Tajma Hall sister, 2016 Alberta Horse of the Year Tajmeallover, rallying wide from the back of the five-horse field as Remember Terror began to fade first-up. Down the stretch, Tajmeallover attempted to haul down her younger sibling, but Watch My Luck persevered by less than a length for the second week in a row. Nighttraintovegas (Keith Clark) edged out G Ts Jamie for third-place over six lengths away.
Watch My Luck paid $5.30 to win as the slight second choice to her favoured stablemate. The top two finishers are both owned by Gagne, Peter Van Seggelen and Carl Warnaar, with Tapron Holdings Ltd. part of the ownership group on Tajmeallover as well.
The win was the 13th in 34 career starts for Watch My Luck, who has earned $130,000 in purses. She has won half of her eight races this year while out-finishing her older sister in three of their four match-ups.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Century Downs.