Lucky Man capitalized off Major Hottie’s miscue in the stretch and edged out Bigtime Ball to win the $42,000 Open Pace on Saturday evening at Mohawk Racetrack
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Major Hottie (Jody Jamieson) crossed over in front of even-money favourite Bigtime Ball (Paul MacDonell) from the outside Post 6 with insider starter Lucky Man and Mark MacDonald getting away third. The early speedster fired off a :25.2 opening quarter with the field following in single file alignment to the next marker of :54.2.
Major Hottie remained untested to three-quarters in 1:21.4 but made a costly break in stride in the stretch leaving Bigtime Ball in control to battle with an up-and-coming Lucky Man. Lucky Man bested Bigtime Ball by half-length with a :26.4 final frame, stopping the timer in a career-best 1:49.1. Keystone Horatio (Randy Waples) closed well from last to show, finishing four lengths behind.
Lucky Man, fifth his last time out in the Canadian Pacing Derby on September 4 at Mohawk, paid $12.20 for the mild 5-1 upset.
The five-year-old Camluck-Under Your Spell gelding picked up his fourth win in 15 starts and lifted his bankroll to nearly $150,000 in the process. The career winner of 14 races and $693,038 is trained by Casie Coleman and owned by Tom Hill of Lancashire, Great Britain.
Stay tuned to the SC website for recaps and replays of all the stakes action featured tonight at Mohawk.
To view Saturday’s results, click here.