Formal Affair and driven Mark Bradley converted from the pocket to win the featured $7,500 Inverness Invitational Pace at Inverness Raceway on Sunday afternoon
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Leaving from the inside post position, Outlawpositivcharg (Terry Gallant) took control of the 10th race field and carved out fractions of :27.4, :56 and 1:26 with Formal Affair following in the pocket and P H Bestman (Todd Trites) challenging on the outside in the early going. With P H Bestman beginning to tire later in the mile, Oakmont (Danny Romo) rallied off his cover and struck the front in the stretch, but Formal Affair kicked into high gear and scooted away to a two length victory in a season's best 1:54.3. Oakmont was second with Outlawpositivcharg finishing third.
Formal Affair, a runner-up in the Gold Cup & Saucer Consolation in his last start at Charlottetown Driving Park, notched his fourth win of the season in eight starts and lifted his earnings to $20,245 for 2011. The six-year-old gelded son of Real Desire-Little Black Dress, 17-time career winner with $114,925 banked in purses, is trained by David Rose and owned by Ronnie and Dale Rennie of Elmsdale, P.E.I.
Two races earlier, Truth Or Dare and driver Ryan Campbell advanced first up from fourth and wore down pacesetter Romanie Ranger (Campbell MacIsaac) to win the $1,600 Open Pace in 1:56.3. Havana Dream (Mark Bradley) finished third.
Walter Walker trains and co-owns the seven-year-old Camluck-Virginia Dare gelding with Kayla Anne Habicht of Inverness, N.S. The win was his eighth in 26 seasonal starts.
For results from Sunday's harness racing card, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Inverness Raceway.