Three-year-old pacing colt Canadian Touch earned his first stakes trophy after fighting off the heavy favourite in the $10,958 MSSBA Futurity Final on Saturday at Killarney.
Trainer-driver Roland Rey and Canadian Touch established the lead from post one in the feature race and carved out opening fractions of :30.3 and 1:02.3 before being confronted by Futurity elimination winner and the Manitoba Great Western Stake champion Milliondollardesign (Dean Rey) en route to the 1:33 third quarter mark. The top two battled head-to-head into the stretch, but Canadian Touch persevered, pulling away to a three-quarter length victory in 2:02.4. Milliondollardesign settled for second while Heartland Firmway (Philip Giesbrecht) followed two and three-quarter lengths behind in third.
Canadian Touch, who finished fourth in the Futurity elimination and was the runner-up in the Manitoba Great Western Stake two weeks ago, paid $9.10 to win as the 7-2 third choice. He is now four-for-seven in his debut season with $9,827 banked in purse earnings. Rey also bred and co-owns the Camotion colt.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Killarney.