The talk of the three-year-old ranks in Alberta this year has been Custard Dolce, but one filly — Mademechangemymind — has found a way to defeat the reigning champion of the division not once, but twice this season.
Alberta's top sophomores competed in provincial stakes action on Saturday, Aug. 16 at Century Downs, with the boys filling two $15,000 Alberta Plainsman divisions and the girls in a pair of Alberta Princess splits. The Plainsman divisions kicked off the stakes action, with Outlawminutbyminut and Captain Keys finding the wire first.
Outlawminutbyminut ($4.60) and Logan Gillis followed favoured Momas Work Of Art (David Kelly) through fractions of :28.2, :57.3 and 1:25 before angling out of the pocket at the head of the lane and then powering past the pacesetter for the 1:53.1 lifetime best score. Momas Work Of Art finished three parts of a length back back in second with Discontinued (Brandon Campbell) best of the rest in third.
Gillis trains and co-owns Outlawminutbyminut, a gelded son of Smart Shark - At This Hour, along with Todd Teolis of St. Albert, Alta. Now a three-time winner this season and seven-time winner is his career, Outlawminutbyminut boasts a bankroll exceeding $165,000.
Captain Keys was sent off at 19-1 in the second Plainsman division, but trainer-driver Kelly Hoerdt handled the son of Captain Deo - Keys Please with all the confidence of a 1-9 shot. Sitting sixth through the early fractions of :27.3 and :58 established by Ima Rum Runner (James Jungquist), Captain Keys brushed first up with authority down the backside and engaged the pacesetter through a 1:26.4 third station. At the head of the stretch, Captain Keys started to put away Ima Rum Runner but then had to deal with the late lunge of G Ts Jukebox Jack (Mike Hennessy). Captain Keys held on by a nose in a 1:56.3 tally, with G Ts Jukebox Jack just missing and Ima Rum Runner staying for show.
A homebred owned by Simone Urquhart of, Surrey, B.C., Captain Keys picked up his seventh career victory and lifted his lifetime earnings to $46.960. He returned $41.80 to his supporters.
Wire-to-wire was the way to win the Alberta Princess splits, with Blowing Inthe Wind ($4.80) and Mademechangemymind ($18.90) executing the same formula with different variables to find the answer first.
Blowing Inthe Wind and driver Jungquist breezed to a 1:56.1 tally in the first Princess elimination, a length better than Chics Dragon Flies (Campbell) and Hot Shot Shark (Gillis). The time of that mile matched the career mark of the daughter of Winds Of Change - Miss Conduct, a five-time winning homebred campaigned by Donald Richardson of Cochrane, Alta. Harold Haining handles the training duties on the winner of $92,872.
Mademechangemymind and driver Hennessy (pictured above) made every call a winning one, besting favoured Custard Dolce (Phil Giesbrecht) by 1-1/2 lengths in a career best time of 1:55. Hazels Hazelnut (Darren Callaghan) completed the top trio. Also a daughter of Winds Of Change, but from the Lambretta mare Imjusttaylormade, Mademechangemymind now sports seven career scores with more than $175,000 in earnings for owner and trainer Nathan Sobey of Sturgeon County, Alta.
Sobey, who was injured in a race at Century Downs on June 18, made his driving return later on the card with a pair of horses from his own stable. He won both, connecting with Matteuse (1:53.3; $17.40) in the 12th race and Oye Como Va (1:56.3; $9.40) in the finale to complete the training triple.
"It was great to be back, but I'm out of [driving] shape so I need to slowly start to work my way back into it," Sobey told Trot Insider after the card. "It’ll just take some time."
Usually, Shark Week gets higher billing on a card such as this. The seven-year-old son of Vertical Horizon - Shark Gone Bad made his 100th career start in style: saddled with the outermost starting spot in an eight-horse $16,000 Preferred Handicap Pace. Age is just a number, and the post position is just a starting spot. What matters most is where you finish, and Shark Week finished first for the 13th time this year and the 62nd time of his tremendous career, holding on by a head after cutting the mile with driver Hennessy to best a pocket-rocket Mercedes (Campbell) in 1:52.4. Midnight Mover (Jungquist) completed the triactor ticket.
Rod Hennessy trains and co-owns Shark Week, now a winner of $527,270., with Lorne Duffield of Edmonton, Alta. He returned $2.70 to win.
To view the full results from the Saturday card of harness racing outside of Calgary, click the following link: Saturday Results - Century Downs.
(Standardbred Canada)