Leamington Raceway hosted a 10-dash program of harness racing on Sunday (September 17). If that sounds like your average afternoon card at the fairgrounds – which it does – you’d better take a second look at the charts.
TRACK RECORD LOWERED IN LONE QUALIFIER
It was track record time on Sunday (September 17) at Leamington Raceway, but the caveat is that the speedy mile was not recorded during the track’s pari-mutuel program of racing.
The mile, which was recorded by Adventure Ahead, came in a qualifying race, not during the 10-race program which was the feature of the afternoon.
Adventure Ahead, a three-year-old gelding by Angus Hall, was a gate-to-wire winner in the qualifier. He started from Post 3, cut all the speed (:30.4, 1:02.3, 1:33), and capped things off with a :29.3 final quarter. The margin of victory was one and a half lengths and the win time was 2:02.3.
The 2:02.3 clocking is the new track record for three-year-old trotting geldings (the former mark was 2:05).
Adventure Ahead is trained by Tim Myers for Windsor, Ontario-based owner Michael Cecile. Tyler Borth was up behind the gelding for the record mile.
To view the chart from the mile, click here.
107-1 LONGSHOT UPENDS THE APPLE CART
Leamington also hosted a 10-race card of pari-mutuel racing on Sunday, and Todays Sports proved to be the talking point of the program, even though nobody really saw it coming.
The three-year-old Sportswriter filly was dispatched at odds of 107-1, which proved to be the longest odds of any starter at Leamington on Sunday.
After having started from Post 7 in the $3,800 conditioned event, Todays Sports and pilot Mark MacQuarrie found themselves fifth at the opening quarter (:28.4). MacQuarrie pulled first over with the Gerald Pedden trainee in the second panel.
The duo was overland and a length back in second by the half-mile pole (:59.4); and were still right there, just a half-length back to the pacesetting Out Think Em at the three-quarters of a mile call (1:30.1).
After a tough journey on the outside, Todays Sports was up by a neck at the top of the lane. There was a flurry of action from there on out, as five horses finished within three-quarters of a length of Todays Sports at the wire.
The time of the mile was 2:02.4, and the win mutuel was a hefty $216.
Pedden, of Waterford, Ont., also owns Todays Sports, whom he acquired last November.
Only three other horses in Sunday’s Canadian harness racing action went postward at longer odds (121-1, 126-1, 188-1) than Todays Sports (107-1), and each of them ended up finishing up the track. Two other horses were sent off at triple-digit odds (104-1, 104-1) in Canada on Sunday, but all they could muster were fifth and sixth-place finishes.
To view the harness racing results for Sunday at Leamington, click the following link: Sunday Results – Leamington Raceway.