The skies were threatening, but the showers held off for the $70,600 final of the Balanced Image Trot Saturday night.
Three fillies and five colts/geldings took part in the final after finishing in the top two positions in their eliminations on August 23.
Gee Okeeffe, driven by Dave Boughton, went off as the favourite after the two-year-old filly won her elimination the week before in 2:01.1, and has put up impressive numbers in the Gold and Grassroots Ontario Sires Stakes program this season. The two-year-old daughter of Holiday Road got off to a quick start leading the field through the first quarter in :29.2 and the half in 1:00.2.
Desis Dream and Steve Byron got away second and stayed in the pocket forcing Caulfield, driven by Trevor Henry, to come first over at the half. The two-year-old son of Kadabra stayed on the outside and moved to within a head of Gee Okeeffe past the three-quarters in 1:30.3.
Despite the outside trip, Henry got the most out of his gelding and slipped past the front-running filly in the stretch, while hometown favourite Platoon Seelster, driven by Ryan Holliday and trained by David Holliday for owners Caroline Holiday of Mt Forest and Dennis Hannath of Harriston, managed to close strongly nipping Gee Okeeffe for second place at the wire.
Caulfield, who is trained by Chris Beaver and owned by the Synerco Ventures company of Toronto, finished the mile in 2:01, less than a second off the track record.
Afterwards, Henry said his charge showed a lot of guts spending most of his mile on the outside trying to catch Gee Okeeffe. The perseverance paid off.
In other racing notes, Ryan Holliday won the $4,000 Earl Ash Memorial Trot with C R Amigo for trainer David Holliday owner Ron Corbett of St Jacobs in 2:04.4.
The Ontario Sires Stakes are back at Hanover next Saturday as two-year-old colt ad gelding trotters hit the track. Post time at Hanover Raceway on September 6 is 7:15 p.m.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Hanover Raceway.
(With files from Hanover Raceway)