Speaking Volumes had his say again in the featured $17,639 Open II Handicap Pace on Tuesday, Aug. 6 at Running Aces.
Juju Hanover (Elson Miller) was sent off as the 3-2 favourite in the field of eight while Captain Up (Brad Irvine) took plenty of action at 2-1 and last week’s winner, Speaking Volumes (Mooney Svendsen), was sent off as the 7-2 third choice.
Both Zanetti (Dean Magee) and Speaking Volumes fired hard from the outside positions and surged toward the front, with Speaking Volumes making the top before the :26.4 quarter while Zanetti secured the pocket and Juju Hanover got away in third.
Svendsen settled the leader into a nice rhythm on the front and stole a :29.1 second-quarter breather as the competition followed intently onto the backstretch.
Juju Hanover launched a first-over bid as they headed onto the far turn and applied some pressure to the leader as they reached the three-quarter pole in 1:23.2 while Zanetti remained close in the pocket.
Speaking Volumes continued to pace strong in the lane to post a 1-1/4-length victory in 1:51.4 while Zanetti chased him home with interest and Captain Up weaved through traffic with a huge late rally to grab second on the line over Zanetti.
The winner is a four-year-old son of Artspeak, owned by Little Bapa and is trained by Bob Johnson. He paid $9 to win.
Peanutbutterfalcon (Jeff Hunt) picked up his second straight victory with a gate-to-wire score in a $12,500 two-year-old handicap trot, getting home a 3-1/4-length winner over Braggen Bliss (Nick Roland) and SD Imma Superstar (Brian Detgen) in 2:03. It was the third win in five career starts for the son of Quality Kemp, owned by Jeralene Roland and trained by Dan Roland. He paid $7.60 to win.
Tutto Bene (Todd Warren) posted a 16-1 upset to capture his first career win in the $12,500 freshman handicap pace with a front-end trip and a game effort to hold off heavy favourite The Minnesota Kid (Luke Plano) by a head in 1:57.3 while One Last Booyah (Hunt) checked home in third. The winner is a son of Karpathian Kid and is owned by Ron Rettig-Zucchi and trained by Lino Pacheco. He returned $34 for the upset win.
Driver Nick Roland led the Tuesday night program with three wins while Jeff Hunt posted a double.
Live harness racing returns to Running Aces on Thursday night, Aug. 8 for an 11-race program that will feature a carryover of $21,800.80 in the 20-cent Pick-5 Jackpot wager, which will get underway in race seven. Running Aces management, in conjunction with the United States Trotting Association’s Strategic Wagering Program, has added a $10,000 instant guarantee for Thursday's early Hi-5 wager in race four, which has a carryover of $2,886.80. First post is set for 6 p.m. (CDT).
(With files from Running Aces)