Ideal Art kicked off the second leg of the Robert Murphy B.C. Breeders Stakes for three-year-old pacing colts with a repeat victory for Team Abbott on Sunday afternoon at Fraser Downs.
Fresh off a victory in his sophomore debut during the opening leg of the B.C. Breeders Stakes on Aug. 17, Ideal Art ($2.90) took a new lifetime mark of 1:55 flat with a another wire-to-wire winning effort for driver John Abbott and his father, trainer Gord Abbott.
Leaving from post three, the popular American Ideal-Athenas Art colt carved out fractions of :28.3, :57.3, and 1:26.2 before sprinting a :28.3 final panel to seal the deal. D On Sanders and David McKellar finished one length behind in second while Battle Station and Don Monkman Jr. rounded out the top three finishers almost 10 lengths in arrears.
Ideal Art is now three-for-seven in his career with $13,500 banked in purses for Seaspray Stables Ltd. of Nanaimo, B.C.
The second division went to Red Star Bootleg ($38.50), who pulled off a 18-1 upset as he made up a 15 length deficit during the final half of the race for a 1:58.4 maiden-breaking victory in rein to Brad Watt.
Red Star Bootleg sat fourth for most of the mile while favourite Why We Were Chosen and Rod Therres and the Abbott-driven One Last Shot broke away from the field through panels of :29, :57, and 1:27. But Watt sent the longest shot on the board first over at the third quarter mark and held off C Lec Last Hurrah and Serge Masse, who followed that move from the back of the five-horse field, to win by half a length. Imn Seventh Heaven and James Burke came on for third, just three-quarters of a length behind in the passing lane.
Sam Robinson trains the Robert Murphy-bred Jeremes Jet-Rustlers Dream colt, who was making his ninth career start for owner Audrey Leighland of Maple Ridge, B.C.
The third elimination leg for the three-year-old pacing colts will take place on Sunday, October 20 and the final preliminary event will be held on Saturday, November 2. The B.C. Breeders Stakes will wrap up with the finals on Monday, November 11.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Fraser Downs.