After seeing her summer-long win streak snapped in last week's PEI Colt Stakes by a mere half-length, the Waite family's star filly All About Madi was back to her winning ways in the Donnie & George Turner Memorial on Sunday (September 25) at Truro Raceway.
The stakes event for sophomore pacers was split into three $10,110 divisions in which All About Madi defeated the fillies while Abner The Great and K D Overdrive beat the boys.
While Corey MacPherson drove All About Madi for the first time on Sunday, he used the filly's usual front-end tactics to send her back to the winner's circle. All About Madi took the lead from post five and cruised through fractions of :29, :59.4 and 1:30.3 en route to the three and three-quarter length victory in 1:59.4 over a 'good' track. Howmacfiesty advanced first over from the backfield for the runner-up honours while Paradise Paradox followed her cover to finish third ahead of early breaker Scarlet Safari, who had ended All About Madi's win streak just before it hit double-digits last week.
All About Madi paid $3.30 to win as the odds-on favourite. The homebred Brandons Cowboy-Jk Casablanca filly now has 12 victories from 18 starts in her $48,000 debut season for trainer Leith Waite and co-owners Leslie and Spencer Waite.
In the first division for the colts and geldings, the Earl Watts-trained Abner The Great established a new lifetime mark of 1:56.3. After getting away fifth, driver Marc Campbell sent the Western Paradise-Majortempertantrum gelding on the attack at the half-mile mark and overtook the popular pacesetter Jackson K Down (:27.1, :56.1, 1:26.4) in the stretch before drawing away by three and three-quarter lengths. Magical Cowboy and Preceptor finished second and third ahead of Jackson K Down.
Abner The Great paid $10.30 to win as the 4-1 second choice. After making just one start in his two-year-old season, he now has four wins in 17 starts this year and career earnings over $20,000 for owners Windemere Farms, Harris Johnston, Roger Burns, and John Howatt.
The other colt division was won by the Downey Stables' K D Overdrive, who is trained by Stephen Mason and was driven by Gilles Barrieau. He followed back in fourth early on through opening panels of :27.4 and :57.2 and rallied three-wide outside of pacesetter Woodmere Terror and the favoured first over challenger Heart And Soul to gain the lead at the 1:28.1 third quarter mark. K D Overdrive then took off down the stretch to win by four and a half lengths in 1:58 flat. Woodmere Terror held on for second and Elm Grove Kaboom finished third.
K D Overdrive paid $15.60 to win for the mild 6-1 upset. The win was the third this year from 13 starts for the Camystic-Stormy Sakra gelding, who has earned $19,452 to push his career bankroll over $53,000.
A pair of non-wagering Nova Scotia Series Stakes events on Sunday featured a match-up of trotters from the Ralph Annear and James & Marylea Ripley stables.
In the $3,920 two-year-old trot, the Ripleys' gelding Majian Tango defeated Annear's filly Dunmore Finale by four lengths in 2:11.4 for his fourth win in a row, but then their filly Majian Maxine broke stride early on in the $4,008 sophomore division and was no threat to Annear's colt Dunmore Ace, who was a 2:06.2 winner with Jack Panting in the sulky.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Truro Raceway.