I Did It Myway was a repeat winner in the Kentucky Championship Series, besting North America Cup champion Pebble Beach for the second consecutive week on Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 23) at The Red Mile.
Pebble Beach, who won the opening round of the series on Aug. 7, was the 3-5 favourite in Tuesday's $80,000 third leg division and swept from third to first after a :27.1 first quarter. Todd McCarthy rated the Noel Daley trainee through middle splits of :55 and 1:22.1 while rival I Did It Myway and Andrew McCarthy launched their attack from back in fourth midway through the final turn.
Pebble Beach turned for home with a two-length lead but, once again, the Tony Alagna star I Did It Myway out-sprinted him home, kicking by with a 26-second final frame to win by 2-1/4 lengths in 1:48.3. Pebble Beach held on for second with Dancin Sancho scooting up the inside in rein to Tyler Smith.
Fresh off a similar 1:48.2 triumph in last week's second leg, I Did It Myway returned $5.40 while defeating the favourite as the 8-5 second choice.
I Did It Myway now has four wins and more than $200,000 earned from 11 sophomore starts. The victory was his ninth lifetime and boosted his bankroll to $343,708 for breeder Joe Sbrocco and co-owners Country Club Acres, Don Latore, and Alagna And Fodera Racing.
The win was the first of three in a row to open the program for Alagna. Three-year-old trotting filly More Than Ever (Dexter Dunn, 1:52) and three-year-old pacing colt Taurasi (Devon Tharps, 1:48.3) followed with wins in their respective $30,000 divisions in the Kentucky Commonwealth Series. Both sophomores established new lifetime marks while remaining undefeated through the first three legs of the series.
Overlooked at odds of 17-1, Eternal Lee picked up her second victory in the Kentucky Championship Series for the three-year-old trotting fillies.
Four of the six fillies made appearances on the front end throughout the action-packed third leg of the series, with Eternal Lee the last to the top before opening up an insurmountable lead. A 1:51.2 winner in the Aug. 2 opening round, the Chris Ryder trainee lowered that mark by two-fifths of a second while giving Andrew McCarthy a sweep of Tuesday's top stakes.
Bare My Soul (Yannick Gingras) got the first call leaving from post three with Date Night (Andy Miller) trotting up outside from post five to take over through a 27-second opening quarter.
Yanaba (Todd McCarthy) was on the move next but Bare My Soul got the jump on her, quickly retaking the top spot. Yanaba continued to progress alongside the new leader at the half in :55.2 and just as she pressed forward to take over, Eternal Lee rushed up to apply immediate pressure and swept by on the way to three-quarters in 1:22.4.
Eternal Lee gained significant separation from her foes turning for home and cruised to the wire for the upset victory in 1:51. Date Night closed in for second, finishing 1-1/2 lengths behind at the end, with Yanaba third while the 4-5 favoured second leg winner, Selfie Queen (Dexter Dunn), got up for fourth after trailing the field through the first half.
Eternal Lee returned $36.12 to her backers at the betting windows.
The Southwind Frank-Charity Hall filly was a runner-up to Selfie Queen in the last year's final of the Championship Series. She has won half of her eight sophomore starts and now has five victories lifetime and $254,148 in purse earnings for owner/breeder Murray Ferguson Jr. of Sutton West, Ont.
Andrew McCarthy picked up another stakes victory in a $15,000 division of the Golden Rod Series with Daley's trotting filly Unleashed Kemp (1:51.4).
Driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke teamed up for a Golden Rod Series double with pacing colt Silverstone (1:50.4) and the streaking trotting filly Saffron Girl (1:51.4).
The other trotting filly division winner was Blue Bayou Deo (1:52) in a five-length romp with John MacDonald driving for trainer Jason Robinson and Thestable Blue Bayou Deo of Guelph, Ont.