MacDonald Sweeps Rideau Preferreds

Published: September 12, 2010 10:38 pm EDT

Hesgotlegs and Armadilo have a number of things in common with one another – they both won on Sunday night, they both savoured their wins in the Preferred level

at Rideau Carleton Raceway, the both won for the fourth straight start and they were both driven to victory by John MacDonald.

Hesgotlegs front-stepped to a 1:56.2 win in the $14,000 Preferred Trot for MacDonald and trainer Gary MacDonald. The five-year-old son of Feel Like A Winner laid down fractions of :27.4, :58 and 1:26.4 before kicking home in :29.3 to seal the deal by 1-1/4 lengths. Unbounded River was next best, and Stella Hall rounded out the top three finishers.

Gord McDonald, Gary McDonald and Christopher Boland of Ontario share ownership on the gelding, who was sent off as the even-money favourite in the nine-horse affair. It was the seventh tally of the season for the 15-time winner who surpassed $100,000 in lifetime earnings in the process.

Armadilo also used a “catch me if you can” approach to win the $14,000 Preferred Pace for the tandem of driver MacDonald and trainer Jamie Johnston. The speedy seven-year-old son of D M Dilinger hammered out panels of :26.2, :56 and 1:23.2 before stepping home in a :29-second clop to win in 1:52.2. He held on to win by a quarter of a length over Ruthless Ace. P H Bestman was third.

It was the 20th lifetime triumph for the gelding, who is owned by Frank Schimizzi, Frank Spagnolo and Cara Johnston of Ontario. The pacer, who is now 8-for-26 this season, has banked more than $240,000 to date.

To view Sunday’s results, click here.

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