Manitoba’s Holland Fair hosted an eight-race program of harness racing on Sunday (Sept. 15), which featured both a $3,330 Open-Handicap Pace and a $3,220 Preferred 2 Pace.
The Open-Handicap was carded as the last race of the program and a field of four headed behind the gate. The Post 4 starter, Prairie Mystic, had been bet down to the public’s odds-on choice, and the son of Mystery Chase lived up to expectations. Racing over a ‘good’ track that was rated two seconds slow, Prairie Mystic ($3.10) did all the roadwork and hung on to post a two-length victory in 2:01.1. Trainer/driver Don Howlett called the shots and led his six-year-old gelding through the splits in :30, 1:01.1 and 1:31.2. Prairie Mystic has now notched 15 wins from 100 career starts and has banked $126,685 in purses. He is owned by Ralph Morrow (of Cartwright, MB), Wanda Howlett (Winnipeg, MB) and Dwayne Taylor (Minto, MB).
The Preferred 2 Pace had taken place one race earlier (Race 7), and in it the Clayton Braybrook-trained and driven Appoggiatura came first-up from fourth and went on to post a one and a half-length victory in 2:04. Appoggiatura ($9.10), who is a five-year-old Blue Burner gelding, has now won nine of his 48 career races and has banked $35,031 overall. Appoggiatura is a homebred of Glenda Giles, of Kindersley, SK.
The win in the Preferred 2 Pace capped a natural training and driving hat trick for Braybrook, who had previously steered his pupils to victory in Race 5 (Tami Blue, $4.10) and Race 6 (Bling Kaching, $9.20).
To view the harness racing results for Sunday at Holland, click the following link: Sunday Results – Holland Fair.