Nick Roland captured two of the three featured events on the Thursday night (June 17) program at Running Aces, piloting his own trainees to victory in both the $15,000 Minnesota-sired sophomore “A” Pace and the $12,000 Mares Open Pace.
Roland and Set The Pace Racing's Alilthundadownunda ($4.40) dominated the sophomore “A” split impressively from post nine, controlling the affair from just after the start. Roland got away with a soft opening half of :59.2 and then turned in a :56.2 final half to keep his rivals in chase mode, opening up in the lane to win by 4-1/2 lengths in 1:55.4 for his fourth win in five local starts this year.
In The Mares Open Pace, Roland steered Always Be Lucy to a grinding first-over trip and kept her game all the way to wear down leader Hottieonthehorizon (Chris Scicluna) and hold off a fast closing charge from Anna B (Brady Jenson) in 1:54.3. Always Be Lucy ($20.40) registered her fourth win of the season and her 22nd career score for Set The Pace Racing.
May Day Maggie (Mooney Svendsen, $6.60) scored her first win of the season in the $10,000 “B” split of the sophomore pace, with a dominating gate-to-wire tally in a new career mark of 1:57. The filly by Special Forces is owned by Rick Huffman and Larry Mather, and is trained by Joel McDanel. Starstruck Cowgirl (Rick Magee) was second best all the way, and Brooklyn Wind Up (Brady Jenson) rallied to pick up third.
Roland completed a driving hat trick on the Thursday card in addition to his training double. Luke Plano also completed a driving and training double.
Live racing returns to Running Aces on Sunday (June 20) with first post at 6:05 p.m. (CDT) There is a Jackpot Pick-5 carryover of $19,054.50, and a guaranteed pool of $5,000 in the Late Pick-4.
(Running Aces)