Two-year-old pacers Ayeaye Captain Deo and stablemate Nova Blu swept the top two spots in the second round of the Dream Maker Series for trainer Garry Merner on Friday, Aug. 2 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
With opening leg winner Lite Up The World not entered, Ayeaye Captain Deo was the 1-9 bettors' choice after his runner-up finish last week and the colt delivered on his pari-mutuel promise with a crushing 8-1/2-length victory to break his maiden in 1:52 in rein to Sylvain Filion. Nova Blu and Louis-Phillipe Roy finished second, charted with broken equipment.
After a :27.2 opening quarter put up by Nova Blu, Filion and Ayeaye Captain Deo tracked Take Out Hanover's backstretch move from fourth and took over the lead at the half-mile mark in :56. They raced on to three-quarters in 1:24.3 with Nova Blu taking up the chase but could only watch as his stablemate sprinted away down the stretch in a :27.2 final frame. Take Out Hanover rounded out the top three finish order in the compact field of five for Doug McNair.
Gino Toscano owns the top two finishers. Ayeaye Captain Deo, a Captaintreacherous-Oceania colt who has hit the board in his first three starts, was a $57,000 yearling purchase from the Lexington Selected Sale. Nova Blu, a gelded son of Tall Dark Stranger out of Havana Beach, was a $32,000 Lexington acquisition.
Mohawk also hosted the third leg of the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots for three-year-old pacing fillies with a pair of $20,000 divisions won by All Bets Off daughters How Much (dam Dominican Hanover) and One More Bet (dam P L Kahluaa). Both fillies were first-time Grassroots winners and took new lifetime marks.
Driven by Doug McNair, even-money favourite How Much swept from fourth to first mid-race and drew off to a dazzling 1:49.3 triumph by four lengths, with the late-closing Margosgotthecargo (Bob McClure) and Make Out With Me (Jonathan Drury) completing the top three. David Menary trains the Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi homebred filly co-owned by Knox Services Inc.
Driver Louis-Philippe Roy and 4-1 third choice One More Bet moved out of fourth while tracking the cover of We Meet Again (Trevor Henry) in the final turn and defeated that foe by two lengths in 1:51.3, with Right Match (Sylvain Filion) third. Jean Tourigny trains the winner for owner/breeder Les Ecuries Morel Inc.
A Grassroots winner in the three-year-old filly trot division earlier this year, Anthony Timmins's Valentine Bluechip continued her perfect sophomore season with a 1:55 victory in an $18,000 conditioned race during Friday's card. Driven by Doug McNair and trained by his father Gregg, the Muscle Mass-Shesa Sweetheart filly prevailed from the pocket over the pacesetting colt Craigieburn by 2-3/4 lengths for her sixth straight in a win streak dating back to December.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Standardbred Canada)