It turned out to be a huge night of racing on Friday at Cornerstone Raceway in Yorkton with a number of notable moments
.
The night was billed as Riderville Night at the Races, as the Yorkton Exhibition Association joined forces with the Yorkton Riderville Committee to create a night to help build momentum for the city’s effort to be named Riderville, a promotion of the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders to mark the team’s 100th anniversary.
The night brought former Roughrider star receiver Matt Dominguez to the races to meet fans, and to present the blanket, along with Norm Lutcher, selected from the crowd in the Riderville Pace.
The race was won by Clayton Braybrook with Starlite Diva over Leonard Hill and Barona Galaxy and Tyler Redwood with Ashley Rocks.
The night also featured the annual Pace for the Lillies presented by Dr. Ken Wood and family. This year the race was in honour of the late Lorne Lockhart, a long time Yorkton Exhibition supporter who died in the last year.
Brian Gray took Stagger Lee to the win, the fourth straight win for the duo. Way Outa Bounds and Jeffrey Stone were second and Brad LeDrew and Power Maid in for third.
Things would go Stone’s way for much of the night.
In race four he would guide Out Of Snorts to the win, the fifth straight for the pair, the most wins in-a-row in recent memory in Yorkton for those on the backstretch.
Stone said Out Of Snorts has been in fine form for weeks crediting owner Annabelle Pirie, trainer Ken Hanson and groom Kirby Pfannmuller with their efforts. He added by saying Pirie has a nice farm in Manitoba where Out Of Snorts gets “turned out on 60 acres of grass with about six other horses,” so stays content between races.
Once on the track Snorts does what she has to do.
“She’s nice to drive. She’s just a real nice mare,” said Stone. “She’s just tough. She’s like her driver, she doesn’t like to lose.”
In the Done-Rite Autobody feature, Stone was back in the winner’s circle with Ignite The Spark. The pair won going away in a night’s best time of 2:01.2, easily out pacing Glenn LeDrew and Pumpjack and Tyler Redwood with Phil House.
Stone said he and Ignite The Spark seem to make a good team.
“I’ve never lost a race with that horse I don’t think. I might have been second once,” he said.
Asked why he works well with the horse, Stone said, “I don’t know. He just likes me.”
Stone also topped the Saskatchewan Standardbred Breeders and Owners Prairie Pace, with a $7,000 purse, the biggest of the Yorkton meet. He won the pace with Dynes At The Beach, over Redwood and The Candy Man.
The race also ended up with the first dead-heat in the modern era of racing in Yorkton with Brad LeDrew and Bigtime Jackpot and Glenn LeDrew and Manstorm tied for third.
Stone said the race didn’t go the way he had envisioned it, but he made what was offered him work for him.
“The front end was really fast,” he said, adding he was “getting gapped out.”
“I pulled really early,” he added. “I was hoping they come back to me. At the half I was starting to worry they wouldn’t come back.”
But as the field slowed, Stone said he and Dynes “just kept going” to the win. Stone said he was especially pleased to win the big purse race for trainer Elaine Bell.
“I was so happy for Elaine. She had him (Dynes) ready,” he said, adding “it couldn’t of happened to a nicer lady.”
The final race on the card was the Yorkton Co-op Feature with Terry Kaufman taking the blanket with OJs Boy, over Stone and Miss Laguna Beach and Glenn LeDrew and Pandori.
(Trot Insider exclusive by Calvin Daniels)
To view Friday’s results, click here.