Grey Sea and driver Kelly Hoerdt emerged among a wave of late closers in the stretch to prevail in the $15,500 Fillies & Mares Preferred Pace at Century Downs on Friday, Aug. 7.
Even-money favourite Georgia Hanover (Dave Kelly) set up shop on the front-end into a :27.4 first quarter then rated a half in :57.2 as Blowing Inthe Wind (James Jungquist) followed in the pocket and Byby Baby Byby (Mike Hennessy) headed the outer flow from third. The first-over challenger inched closer towards the popular pacesetter as they raced to three-quarters in 1:25.2 while Grey Sea tracked the cover and swung three-wide for the stretch drive. Georgia Hanover clung to a dwindling lead with Blowing Inthe Wind gusting up in the inside and a widest-of-all Poker Queen (Phil Giesbrecht) laying her cards on the table. The four closers converged on Georgia Hanover in the stretch, with Grey Sea prevailing in between by half a length in 1:54.3. Poker Queen got up for second over Byby Baby Byby and Blowing Inthe Wind with Georgia Hanover ending up fifth.
Grey Sea was the 6-5 second choice and paid $4.50 to win. Trained by Gord Abbott, the seven-year-old grey mare earned her second straight victory in the Mares Preferred and sixth win overall this year from 15 starts while banking $57,740. A homebred mare by Custard The Dragon out of Preference, she is a career winner of 34 races and more than $315,000 in purses for Seaspray Stables of Nanaimo, B.C.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Century Downs.
(Standardbred Canada)