Three-year-old pacing fillies Grit N Grace and Choozetocruise continued to dominate their Manitoba stakes rivals with victories in the MSSBA Futurity eliminations on Saturday, Aug. 3 at The Loop.
Both fillies were open-length winners in the Lady Crocus Stakes two weeks ago at Miami Fair with career-best efforts and added to their win streaks with racing back at The Loop.
Trainer Lorraine Rey's homebred filly Grit N Grace (pictured above) maintained a clear lead in the first $9,431 elimination through fractions of :30.3, 1:00.4 and 1:32 before extending that margin to 4-1/4 lengths at the end for the 2:02.4 victory in rein to Dean Rey. The lone filly in the field of five was the 1-4 favourite and she topped pocket-pursuer Lookinlikeamillion (Richard Remillard), with third-place finisher Cartoon Kid (Marc Fillion) more than 16 lengths in arrears.
A runner-up in her career debut at The Loop last month, the Im The Pied Piper-Dragonart filly entered the Futurity eliminations off an 11-length romp in 1:58.4 in the Lady Crocus.
Driver Glenn Le Drew and 1-9 favourite Choozetocruise crossed to command off the gate in the second elimination and cruised through splits of :29.2, 1:01.1 and 1:32.4 before shrugging off the pocket-popping Chasin Rainbows (Dean Rey) for the 2:03 victory while widening her advantage to 5-1/4 lengths down the lane. Tough Crowd (Marc Fillion), the only colt in the five-horse field, out-finished Chasin Rainbows to take second.
After going winless in six starts as a two-year-old, the Lambretta-Kilo Dream filly is now a perfect four-for-four in her sophomore season for trainer and owner Trevor Williams. She took her own lifetime mark of 1:58.4 in the Lady Crocus Stakes at Miami Fair two starts ago.
Assigned the outside post in the field of half a dozen pacers for the afternoon card's $5,500 Open Handicap finale, Armycaptin Hanover with driver Michel Rey rallied three-wide from the backfield to prevail in 2:02.2 by a quarter-length over his main rival Litizor (Don Howlett), who overtook pacesetter and eventual third-place finisher Chazmichaelmichael (Richard Remillard) from the pocket in the stretch but has to settle for the runner-up role for the second straight week.
A 45-time career winner, the eight-year-old Captaintreacherous gelding has won three of his four starts during the Manitoba racing season since joining the Richard Rey stable this summer for owner Laverne Turnbull.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - The Loop.
(Standardbred Canada)