Driver Austin Sorrie was the star of the card with seven winners on Friday, May 22 at The Raceway at Western Fair District.
Sorrie set the tone for the night right out of the gate in the opening $14,000 Fillies & Mares Preferred Pace with multiple Ontario Sires Stakes winner Macapelo Seelster, who made her first appearance at The Raceway a wire-to-wire success story.
Sorrie picked up the live catch-drive on the favoured four-year-old Peter Brickman trainee, who was a three-time winner in the Grassroots Series last year, and made the front in the first turn. Macapelo Seelster led by multiple lengths through fractions of :27.4, :56.2 and 1:25 before holding off pocket-pursuer Justine Ray (Jason Ryan) and Ladyterra (Samuel Fillion) for the 1:54.4 victory by three-quarters of a length.
Winning her second start of the season, Macapelo Seelster paid $3.50 as the 3-5 favourite. The Big Jim-Macapelo Rose mare, a winner in seven of her 29 starts with lifetime earnings totalling $214,781, is owned by Erin Swainson Brickman of Sebringville, Ont.
Sorrie swept the first four races, making return trips to the winner's circle with a pair of popular Gerard Demers trainees, sophomore pacer Beachwash and the claimed eight-year-old trotter Amigo Mio, and scored another photo op with pacer Happy In Control for trainer Dale Heard.
The 26-year-old reinsman later took the sixth race with pacer Docdor Mickey scoring off the claim for the Darryl Laver stable. He also won back-to-back races starting in the eighth with the Rachel Andrew-trained pacer Gascoigne A C and trotting mare Oceanview Nikki for trainer Mary Ratchford.
Following a career-year in 2025 when he won a nation-leading 404 races and accumulated $2.7 million in purses, Sorrie is back atop the standings with 167 wins already this season.
Sorrie had to settle for second though in the co-featured Preferred for male pacers with P L Oliver closing 1-1/2 lengths behind 13-1 upset winner B Stoney and Jason Ryan. The winning Jay Polifroni trainee landed in third from the trailing tier in the 12th race finale and survived a first-over journey to score the win in 1:54.1. The bettors' choice, Silverwalls, finished third for Garrett Rooney. B Stoney, a 10-year-old son of Sunfire Blue Chip-Terror Proof with 30 career victories, is owned by Rocco Polifroni of Sudbury, Ont.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Western Fair Raceway.
(Standardbred Canada; photo of Macapelo Seelster winning on May 22)