The Saturday night (June 24) card at Running Aces featured Minnesota-sired three-year-old pacers.
The $8,000 filly division drew a full field of nine young fillies and was headlined by last week’s winner and 2016 champion two-year-old filly Whatitdobabyboo (Rick Magee), conditioned by David Flinn for The Van Oterloo Stables. The favoured filly was saddled with the outside nine post this evening and made a big move past the five-eighths marker to take the lead, but it would be Swinging Again, with James Yoder in the sulky for trainer Gene Miller and owner Wolfswinkel Pacers Inc., who would ultimately prevail.
Both of these fillies are by Voracious Hanover, and Swinging Again followed the big move made by Whatitdobabyboo then tipped off that cover with plenty of pace in the lane to go past her and get the victory in a lifetime-best mile of 1:54.1. It was just the second lifetime win for Swinging Again ($10.20) in eight starts.
The $8,000 colts and geldings division attracted a field of seven sophomores and was headlined by Wonder Bull, who came into the contest with three wins in his six local starts this year. On Saturday, he did not disappoint once again, as he left sharply from post one for the pocket trip before exploding in the final quarter to draw away from the field by five and a half lengths and post his seventh lifetime win, stopping the clock in 1:54.2. Wonder Bull ($3.80) is owned by Rick and Lesa Peters, and trained and driven by Nick Roland.
Leading driver Nick Roland led all drivers on Saturday, with a double on the card.
One lucky patron correctly selected all five winners in the 20-cent Jackpot Pick 5 on Saturday night, to collect $20,306.64 on the 7-1-3-3-6 combination, which included only one post time favourite (#3 - Dakota Sleek in race six at 3-5). The winning ticket was sold through Xpressbet and reportedly was a $112 wager.
The next card of live harness racing at Running Aces Casino & Racetrack will go to post on Sunday night, June 25 at 6 p.m. CDT with a nice 12-race program.
(Running Aces)