Glamorgal Fastest In Emerald Stakes

Published: July 19, 2015 02:08 am EDT

Two-year-old pacing fillies faced off in three $16,667 divisions of the Emerald Filly Stakes on Saturday at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino.

The stakes event, sponsored by Standardbred Canada and the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association, is for freshman fillies that are 100 percent Canadian-owned or Canadian-sired.

Divas Dragonfly was the first two-year-old pacing filly to win over Canada's newest track, prevailing in a photo finish for driver Jamie Gray and trainer Carl Archibald.

Meadowlark Farms' homebred Mystery Chase filly tipped out from the backfield at the half and picked cover behind Cuttingtothechase (Brandon Campbell), who confronted Witch Doctor (Rod Hennessy) on the front-end. As the field turned for home, Gray sent Divas Dragonfly wide and she went on to win in 2:00.1 over Joyful Sound (Jim Marino), the early leader who came through between horses for second-place. Cuttingtothechase finished three-quarters of a length behind in third.

One Big Hottie won the second division by open lengths for the father and son, trainer and driver team of Sanford and Brandon Campbell.

The Mister Big filly romped to a nine and three-quarter length victory in 1:59.3 over Moon Struck (Gerry Hudon) and Outlawtriggerhappy (Bill Tainsh Jr.) for local owners Bill Andrew, George Rogers and breeder Jim MacPhail.

Glamorgal was the fastest winner in the final split to claim the divisional track record. She is owned and bred by Pieter Besselink of Okotoks, Alta. and trained by Quentin Schneider.

Driver Gerry Hudon sent the Mystery Chase filly across the track to take the lead from the outside post seven and carved out fractions of :28.1, :59.2 and 1:28.1 en route to the one and a quarter-length victory in 1:59.1 over pocket-sitter Credit The Shark (Keith Clark). Lissie Borden (Bill Tainsh Jr.) followed seven and a half lengths behind in third.

All three stakes winners were first-time winners in their second career starts.

Campbell ended the day with three driving wins while Century Downs' leading horseman Travis Cullen had a training/driving triple for the second consecutive weekend card.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Century Downs.

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