Six-year-old Eyes Dont Lie and owner/trainer/driver Winter Asher-Stalbaum took the Northville Downs’ co-featured $10,800 Mares Open Pace while seven-year-old Travlin Swan and trainer/driver Art McIlmurray captured the $10,800 Open Trot on Friday night (May 5).
The featured Mares Open had Eyes Dont Lie being hustled away from her rail position by Asher-Stalbaum to seat all challengers and never look back. The daughter of Roll With Joe and Michelles Ideal set fractions of :27.3, :57.1 and 1:25.4 before stopping the timer in 1:55 winning by a one-length margin over Rockinattheryman (Marc St. Louis Jr.) and Cousin Margie (Lindsay Moen).
The win marked Eyes Dont Lie’s 16th career victory and pushed her earnings to $113,467.
In the featured trot, McIlmurray drove the son of Swan For All, Travlin Swan, away for the lead. The pair tripped the beams to fractions of :28.1, :57.4, 1:27.1 and a final clocking of 1:57.2 when they held off a late charge by I Get It (Bob Rowland) at the finish by a nose with Thats A Bad Boy (Jason Merriman) finishing third.
The victory for Travlin Swan (pictured above) was career win number 18 and his purse earnings ticked up to $133,603. Travlin Swan is owned by Staci Malady and was bred in Michigan by Gus Korbakis.
Racing at Northville Downs resumes on Saturday, May 6 at 7 p.m.
(With files from Northville Downs)