Shark Festival and trainer/driver Keith Clark got up in the final strides to upset heavy favourite Rollin Deep in the $45,000 Ralph Klein Breeders Stake for three-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday afternoon at Alberta Downs.
Leaving from the inside post position, elimination winner and 1-5 favourite Rollin Deep (Travis Cullen) assumed command over Justapassin Fanci (Gerry Hudon) and Shark Festival with the other elimination winner, Great Desire (Blake Piwniuk), leaving to their outside. Great Desire found herself in trouble early as she was left parked out through a speedy :26.3 opening quarter.
Rollin Deep continued to lead the fillies down the backstretch to the half in :55.2 and began to open up four lengths towards the 1:24.1 three-quarters mark. Meanwhile, Great Desire began to tire and backed through the field as another Clark trainee, Rummys Command (Philip Giesbrecht), was advancing from the backfield around that fading filly.
Rollin Deep turned for home with the rest of the field scrambling to catch up. With the wire quickly approaching, Shark Festival came through to nip the pacesetter by a nose in a photo finish. The 1:54.3 victory was her first this year in seven starts and she returned $24.80 to her backers.
"She got a good trip," said Clark in a post-race interview with Shannon 'Sugar' Doyle. "She got out deep in the stretch. She was one of the top two fillies last year and just hasn't been performing. She's starting to come around."
The Klein victory was the fourth on the card for Clark, who shares ownership of the homebred Shadow Play-Shark Fest filly with Harvey and Ann Jaeger of Airdrie, Alta. Shark Festival won five of her eight starts last year, including stake divisions of the Emerald, ASHA and Premiers filly events. Today's winning effort was a career-best for the bay filly and boosted her bankroll to nearly $60,000.
Sweet Sugar (Jim Marino) came on for third with Triple Action (Jamie Gray) finishing fourth and Charismatic Art (J.F. Gagne) inheriting the final paycheque in fifth. Following a pair of driver's objections, Rummys Command was fifth-placed-sixth for causing interference to Triple Action and Charismatic Art in the stretch.
In regular racing action, Skade won this week's $8,400 Fillies & Mares Open Pace in another close call for trainer/driver Kelly Hoerdt and co-owners Blair and Erna Corbeil of Beaumont, Alta. The four-year-old Dragon Again-Pucker Up mare rallied from sixth to first with a :27.2 closing quarter to prevail by a neck over Feelin Flush (Travis Cullen) and Crackers Hot Shot (Bill Tainsh Jr.). She stopped the clock in a career-best 1:53.2 while scoring her first Open level victory and sixth win overall this year in 18 starts. She paid $8.20 to win.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Alberta Downs.