The Tompkins-Geers Stakes for two-year-old colts and geldings were the main event of the Friday, June 28 evening card of harness racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park with Prince Hal Hanover and Go Ahead Makemyday winning at first asking on the Grand Circuit.
Administrated by the Hambletonian Society, the Tompkins-Geers attracted a single division for both the pacing and trotting events.
Prince Hal Hanover (pictured above) rocketed home and edged a flying rival to win the $50,760 Tompkins-Geers for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings in 1:52.3.
Driven by Bob McClure, Prince Hal Hanover got away fourth and watched his Dr. Ian Moore stablemate Glowing Lou (Sylvain Filion) cut out fractions of :27.3 and :57 before moving first-up on the far turn to get to within a couple lengths at three-quarters (1:26). Lite Up The World (James MacDonald), who followed Prince Hal Hanover throughout, was situated second-over at three-quarters. In the stretch, Prince Hal Hanover powerfully stormed to the lead and held off a strong Lite Up The World by a head in 1:52.3 with a 26.1 final frame. Bitcoin Hanover (Travis Cullen) was a good third.
A son of Captaintreacherous out of the Moore-developed O'Brien Award winner Percy Bluechip, Prince Hal Hanover was making his career debut on Friday off a 1:55.3 qualifying score at Mohawk.
“He’s really got to be an impressive colt in recent times,” said Moore. “I just love racing the babies for the first time, it’s so exciting and it never gets old.
“[Prince Hal Hanover] was mediocre until maybe about two months ago. He started growing, he was a slim build and not real big, just an average size colt, but I liked him…he grew and filled out an awful lot. He got tall recently. We’ve let his hopples out five inches in the last two months, that shows how much he’s grown.”
A $130,000 yearling purchase at the Lexington Selected Sale, Prince Hal Hanover is owned by Prince Hal Hanover Stable of Cambridge, Ont.
A $2 win ticket on Prince Hal Hanover returned $3.50.
Go Ahead Makemyday showed no prisoners to win the $47,925 Tompkins-Geers for two-year-old trotting colts and geldings.
Driven by Sylvain Filion, Go Ahead Makemyday left out strong to get early control and carried favourite Manforce (Jody Jamieson) on the outside until early in the backstretch. Filion immediately removed to the lead after letting Manforce clear. Go Ahead Makemyday set the fractions of :28.2, :59.2 and 1:29.3 before powering home in :27.3 and turning away Manforce by 2-1/4 lengths for the 1:57.1 score. Galen Erso (Doug McNair) finished third.
Trained by Blake MacIntosh, Go Ahead Makemyday was making his career debut after two good qualifiers, including a 2:00.2 win on June 14 at Mohawk. Despite the nice morning efforts, the grey son of Walner-Uvie Hanover went off at odds of 7-1.
“He’s done everything right in the qualifiers and training down,” said MacIntosh. “We trained him in [1]:57, so I knew he had a lot of speed and I thought he was a good price at that.”
A $17,000 yearling purchase in Lexington, Go Ahead Makemyday is owned by MacIntosh, Van Camp Trotting Corp. of Port Perry, Ont., Mortgage Boys Stable of Fayetteville, New York and Ozzie MacKay of Moncton, N.B.
Go Ahead Makemyday paid $16.10 to win.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(With files from Woodbine)