Woodbine Mohawk Park hosted seven qualifiers on Tuesday morning (June 28) with the 2020 O'Brien Award-winning trotter Pemberton among the notable winners.
Trained and driven by Paul Walker, Pemberton took the lead off the gate ahead of Fashion Frenzie in a six-horse field that included a total of four former O'Brien Award winners. Following a pedestrian 31-second opening quarter, Pemberton picked up the pace on the backside to the half in :59.1 and three-quarters in 1:27.1 before finishing it off with a :27.4 final frame to keep Fashion Frenzie at bay by a neck in the 1:55 mile.
Pemberton was named Canada's 2020 Three-Year-Old Male Trotter of the Year after winning eight of 13 starts including the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final during his initial racing season while banking $375,059 for breeders Brenda Walker and Christine Walker. Now five, the Wheeling N Dealin-Dayshifter gelding, who didn't race at four due to injury, was a runner-up in the Free-For-All ranks in his May 16 season's debut before breaking stride in his next two starts.
The Richard Moreau-trained Fashion Frenzie, last year's O'Brien winner in that same category, has now finished second in back-to-back qualifiers as he preps for his four-year-old debut. Macho Martini followed 7-1/4 lengths behind in third.
Making his second qualifying start of the season, Litwin Racing Team's homebred four-year-old gelding Petipou was the morning's fastest winner on the pace, scoring in 1:53.3 by more than four lengths for the father-son, trainer-driver team of Dustin and Tyler Jones.
To view the complete results from Tuesday's qualifier, click on the following link: Tuesday Results (Qualifiers) - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
A replay of the qualifiers is available below.