American Risk capped Opening Day of Inverness Raceway's centennial harness racing season with a victory in the featured Winners Over Pace on Sunday afternoon, May 31.
American Risk headlined the track's top $2,000 class, setting fractions of :30.4, :1:01.3 and 1:33.2 en route to the 3-1/4-length victory in 2:00.4 as the 1-2 favourite. Trained and driven by the father and son team of George Rennison and Ryder Matthews-Rennison, the 10-year-old pacer has raced at Inverness on five occasions in his career, winning four times.
After missing by just a nose in his season's debut on May 18 at Summerside Raceway, American Risk notched his 53rd career victory. The American Ideal-Kissing Bandit gelding had a double-digit win count for the third time in his career in 2025, succeeding in 10 of his 27 starts for his Truro, N.S.-based ownership Risky Bizz Group.
American Risk paid $3.10 to win. Rounding out the top three finishers in the feature, Shir Gain (Rodney Gillis) progressed first-over to take second place and pocket-sitter Whats Up Doc (Redmond Doucet) held on for third over Eastcoast Invader (Monica Sutherland).
Trainer/driver Walter Walker won the first race of Inverness Raceway's 100th anniversary season with three-year-old pacing colt Captain Tate touring the Nova Scotia half-mile oval in 2:06.3 to break his maiden for Halifax owner James MacInnis
Driver Rodney Gillis and trainer D.F. Beaton teamed up for an Opening Day double with Nova Scotia newcomer Believe It Sea It posting the fastest mile on the seven-race card in 1:59.1 and local award-winning claiming pacer Igot Socks, who won the most races at Inverness in 2025, back for more with a 2:02.1 score.
Inverness Raceway's season runs through Oct. 18 with race dates on various Sunday afternoons (1 p.m. ADT post) and Wednesday evenings (7 p.m. ADT post).
To view Sunday's complete harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Inverness Raceway.
A replay of the live stream of Inverness Raceway's program is available below.
(Standardbred Canada)