Marcus Melander trainee Neighver Punt worked from mid-field off a covered trip and gradually reeled in his competition to score the winning blow late and take the $240,000 Goodtimes Stakes, a Grade 2 event for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings, early Saturday evening, June 13 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Royal Captain (Tyler Jones) ripped off the wings of the gate to take the lead to a :26.3 first quarter, chased by Dream For Peace (Mark MacDonald) and Classified (Louis-Philippe Roy) rolling into third. Touchedbyanangel (Doug McNair) gapped the top three from fourth but gathered speed into the backstretch to swoop to the lead before a :55.4 half, at which point 3-5 favourite Magic Punk (Yannick Gingras) pulled off of the pylons from fifth to lead an outside attack.
Magic Punk advanced up the rim through the last turn to match strides with Touchedbyanangel while tracked by Strobe Lite (James MacDonald) from second-over and Neighver Punt from third-over. Touchedbyanangel grasped to his diminishing lead past three-quarters in 1:24.2 and resisted Magic Punk’s charge until the final eighth of a mile. Strobe Lite built momentum off cover as did Neighver Punt and Dexter Dunn down the center of the track once Magic Punk hit the front. Neighver Punt, as he did to win his elimination, laid sight on the leader and extended for the finish to reach the line a winner in 1:52 by 1-3/4 lengths. Magic Punk clung to second from Strobe Lite in third while Touchedbyanangel held onto fourth.
“We just had no early go there,” said Dunn after the race. “He was a little shy [of the starter]. We got away back, but we were following two favourites so I knew we would get a good drag into it. I had to nurse him on the last turn quite a bit but he really exploded off a helmet up the straight. He was struggling a little bit with his gait [being shoeless], but they had the pulldown blind on him tonight. I pulled them down going around the last turn and got him up on the bit. In the home straight, when I really asked him, he was gold.”
A colt by Bar Hopping out of the Donato Hanover mare Twice Is Right, the Brittany Farms-bred Neighver Punt won for the second time from four starts this season and now has three victories from 13 starts in his career with earnings totalling $230,654 for owner Courant Inc. of Delray Beach, Florida.
Melander collected his first victory in the Goodtimes Stakes while Dunn earned his second -- his first coming back in 2022 when steering Fast As The Wind to victory.
Sent off as the second choice in the betting, Neighver Punt paid $7 to win.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(With files from Woodbine)