Dancer Hall earned an O’Brien Award nomination after a solid 2018 campaign in which he captured the Earl Rowe and banked $293,000 in purses. The five-year-old son of Deweycheatumnhowe is readying for his 2019 campaign, and his qualifying performance at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Tuesday (June 25) is proof that he is rounding into form.
Dancer Hall lined up in Post 5 for the third race of the morning, which was contested over a ‘fast’ track that was assessed a one-second variant.
Sylvain Filion, who was the bay’s regular pilot in 2018, was in the bike for the morning assignment. The duo trotted out to second off the wings and past the :29.3 quarter pole. Filion wanted the lead in the second panel and got it, as Dancer Hall was first down to the half-mile marker in :58.4.
Dancer Hall opened up a bit more daylight on his rivals along the turn, as he had expanded his lead to four and a half lengths by the time he passed the three-quarters pole in 1:27.1.
Filion and Dancer Hall were ahead by seven lengths by the time they hit the head of the lane. Filion and his charge had everything their way through the stretch, as they finished the tightener with a :29.2 final quarter. The win time was 1:56.3 and the margin of victory was three and a quarter lengths.
The morning mile was the second qualifier of Dancer Hall’s season. He won 10 of his 23 starts last year and also finished second nine times. Dancer Hall, who is currently trained by Rod Boyd for 1187422 Ontario Inc. (of Ottawa, Ont.), has won 18 of his 50 career races and has hit the board 33 times. He has earned $406,862 over the course of his career.
To view the harness racing results for the Tuesday qualifying session at Mohawk, click the following link: Tuesday Results – Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).