Despite torrential rains during the last half of the first Saturday night card of the season at Running Aces, some quick miles resulted in the co-featured pacing events for fillies and mares.
In the $9,000 Mares Open it was Keystone Christa (Nick Roland) edging Ladys Art (Steve Wiseman) by a short head in 1:56 over the sloppy surface. Nocturnal Rose (Tim Maier) got the show dough.
The five-year-old Mach Three lass, making her initial Minnesota start after a successful winter season at Pompano Park, sat patiently in third along the pylons until the head of the stretch and then found room between horses to engage in a fiesty winning stretch drive.
The win was the fourth of the season for Keystone Christa, who is owned by Lee Cullen and is being conditioned in Minnesota by Bev Kingston.
The co-featured $7,800 Class A event for state-sired three-year-olds went to the outstanding filly Delco Voracious (Nick Roland) in impressive gate-to-wire fashion. The win was the seventh in just nine lifetime starts for the daughter of Voracious Hanover, who also won local two-year-old filly honours for owner/trainer Jesse DeLong. FF Big Show (Jason Ryan) finished four and a half lengths back in second with Flick A Fly (Rick Magee) third to cross the wire.
(Running Aces)