A former Ontario Sires Stakes champion and a fresh face graced the winner's circle at Grand River Raceway after starring in a pair of Gold Series divisions for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings on Wednesday evening, Aug. 14.
Reigning OSS divisional champion Willowtime returned to winning form in the first $95,000 Gold event of the evening for driver Bob McClure and trainer Mark Etsell.
Gunning for his first win of the season, Willowtime quickly opened up a four-length lead through a :27 opening quarter and was untouchable the rest of the way for four-time Wednesday winning driver McClure. He set middle fractions of :57.1 and 1:25.2 before turning for home with a seven-length advantage and coasting to the wire in 1:55.2 with three lengths to spare at the end. The race for place was won by pocket-sitter Captain Wania (Trevor Henry) with Fabulous Freddie (Chris Christoforou) closing off cover to nab third just ahead of 3-2 favourite Griff (James MacDonald).
After winning four of five races as a rookie, Willowtime had hit the board in five of his first eight sophomore starts before making it back to the winner's circle. He returned $7.10 to win as the 5-2 second choice.
A career winner of nearly $470,000, the colt by Lookslikeachpndale out of SOS Respect is owned by Etsell along with breeder Terry Devos of Langton, Ont., and partner Peter Porter of Port Dover, Ont.
The victory kicked off a perfect night at the Elora, Ont. oval for the Etsell stable as the O'Brien Award-winning horseman went three-for-three, with three-year-old trotting gelding Fast Approach (Travis Henry) and homebred filly Enchanted Angel (McClure) providing his other wins.
The lightly raced Paquet (pictured above) made his OSS debut a winning one to remain undefeated in two career starts for the father and son, trainer and driver team of Carl and Jody Jamieson.
With an impressive closing kick, Paquet swooped the group to win the fastest division in a career-best 1:54 flat by two lengths, closing from seventh in a :28.2 final quarter. Paquet gapped the field of eight off the gate and his progress was impeded by an early breaker while the 6-5 popular pacesetter, Myretirementdream (Scott Young), opened the race with a :26.4 first quarter and fought off the parked out Masstercraft (Trevor Henry) through middle splits of :55.2 and 1:24.3 with Northern Looker (Chris Christoforou) moving three-wide into contention heading into the final turn. That's when Paquet sprung into action and went by the leaders, with Northern Looker taking second-place and Myretirementdream settling for third.
The Muscle Mass-Darjeeling colt is owned by his Hall of Fame trainer along with the Estate of Brian Paquet, 1140545 Ontario Ltd., and Douglas Good of Chatham, Ont.
The three-year-old trotting colts will meet again for the fifth leg of the Gold Series on Sept. 30 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Wednesday Results - Grand River Raceway.
(Standardbred Canada)