Three-year-old trotting filly Miss Paris turned in a track record equalling performance as she captured the first of two $130,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Finals featured on the Confederation Cup undercard at Flamboro Downs on Sunday afternoon.
Circles (Luc Ouellette) established the early lead ahead of insider Daylon Miracle (Dave Wall) leaving Noble Peace Prize (Jody Jamieson) parked out and forced to take back to third. As Noble Peace Prize found the pylons past the :27.3 first quarter mark, Sugar Wheeler (Paul MacDonell) advanced first from fourth with reigning Gold champion Miss Paris and Rick Zeron following her cover.
Circles led the field past the half in :57 and was confronted by Sugar Wheeler down the backstretch. The top two hit the 1:26 three-quarters mark together while Miss Paris angled three-wide around the final turn. Circles made a costly break around the bend and moved into the safety lane leaving Miss Paris to sweep by with ease down the stretch for the 1:57 triumph. Sugar Wheeler finished one length behind in second and Daylon Miracle was third after suffering interference from the breaker.
Miss Paris's winning time matched Condi Lane's track record for sophomore trotting fillies, which was originally set in 2008.
The Kadabra-Pizza Dolce filly, a career winner of 10 races and $679,556 in purses, is trained by Richard 'Nifty' Norman and owned by Melvin Hartman of Ottawa, Ont., and Florida's Herb Liverman and David McDuffee.
Miss Paris paid $3.80 to win.
Three-year-old trotting colt Keystone Orion pulled off a 22-1 shocker as he earned his first victory of the season in the other Gold Final for driver Dave Boughton and trainer-owner Don Lindsey of Fergus, Ont.
Elimination winner and heavy favourite Cold Certified (Jason Brewer) left from post two and set up shop on the front end ahead of Mikey Hanover (Paul MacDonell) and Keystone Orion. He carved out fractions of :28, :57 and 1:27 with Keystone Orion making his move just before the third quarter mark.
The Angus Hall-Ozone Hanover gelding went head-to-head with the pacesetter around the final turn and wore him down in the stretch to prevail by two lengths in a career-best 1:56.4 over the track which was downgraded to 'good'. Cold Certified finished second and Mikey Hanover was third.
Keystone Orion returned $47.20 to his backers. The victory was his sixth lifetime and boosted his bankroll to $239,650.
Flamboro's Signature Pacing Series wrapped up during the Sunday card with Dungeon Dragon and Scott Zeron converting from the pocket to win the $54,000 final by three-quarters of a length in a new mark of 1:52.4 over Hidden Potential (Billy Davis Jr.) and the popular pacesetter Ontheclock Hanover (Jody Jamieson). David Menary trains the three-year-old Dragon Again-Caitlin Q gelding, who also won his first leg division of the series, for owners Howard Taylor and Abraham Basen.
The Signature Series is for pacing colts and geldings that are non-winners of $75,000 lifetime as of midnight July 14, 2012 (no allowances for age).
Another track record performance took place during the Confederation Cup undercard in the Preferred events. Driven by Scott Zeron, Stormont Lancelot lowered Lesterstrikesagain's track and Canadian record for aged trotting horses and geldings by one-fifth of a second to 1:55 flat with an eight and a half length romp in the $25,000 Preferred Trot. The six-year-old gelding is trained by Sean Macswain for owner James MacDonald of Guelph, Ont.
Daddy Mac and Randy Waples held off Button Up (Mike Horner) by half a length to win the matching $25,000 Preferred Pace in 1:53.2. The eight-year-old Camluck-Sanfrancine gelding is trained by Travis Alexander for Fiddlers Creek Stables L.
For coverage of the featured $581,500 Confederation Cup, click here.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Flamboro Downs.