Saulsbrook Alana and driver Marc Campbell were victorious in the 20th edition of The Maritimer for three-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday afternoon at Exhibition Park Raceway.
The stakes event is co-sponsored by the New Brunswick Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association and Saint John Exhibition Association.
The streaking Elm Grove Inarush (Mark Bradley) and Lovineveryminute (Todd Trites) went wire-to-wire to win the $9,762 elimination heats earlier in the day in matching 2:00.3 miles while Saulsbrook Alana finished second to the latter filly.
However, Saulsbrook Alana rallied home from off the pace to defeat Lovineveryminute up the passing lane in the $13,016 final for the 1:59 victory. Lovineveryminute led through fractions of :28.3, :57.2 and 1:26.4 before being overtaken in the stretch. She finished three lengths behind the winner and held off Pictonian Sareta (Mike Stevenson) and favourite Elm Grove Inarush for the runner-up honours.
Kevin MacLean trains Saulsbrook Alana for Stratford, P.E.I. owner Reginald MacPherson. The Western Paradise filly has now won half of her 10 sophomore starts for seasonal earnings of $34,657.
Kass Hall and driver Scott Hubbard closed out the card with a four and a quarter length romp in 1:59 in the $4,000 Milton Downey Memorial Pace. Last year's Maritimer champion Ramblinglily (Marc Campbell) trailed the field early on, but rallied three-wide around Dance Hanover (Stephen Trites), who was parked every step of the way, and came on for second despite suffering interference at the five-eighths mark. Bakardi Arti (Gilles Barrieau) had caused the interference, but finished behind Ramblinglily in seventh and therefore there were no placings in the race. Judge Jon (Mike Stevenson) finished third.
Kass Hall is trained by Robyn Dickison and owned by Shawn Dickison of Teeds Mills, N.B. The 10-year-old Blissfull Hall pacer now has three wins, five seconds and one third-place finish in 11 starts this season.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Exhibition Park Raceway.