A pair of Blue Burner freshmen -- the streaking Blue Star Jet and track record-equalling Outlaw Turn N Burn -- swept the Century Stakes on Sunday afternoon at Century Downs.
Blue Star Jet ($3.20) notched his fourth consecutive stakes victory in the first $25,000 division, leaving from the outside post six and going wire-to-wire in 1:57.3. The 3-5 race favourite set fractions of :29.3, 1:00 and 1:28.4 to three-quarters before sealing the deal with a :28.4 final kicker to prevail by one length over pocket-pursuer Wrangler Cash. Outlaw Gettinrdone quickly recovered from a miscue in the first turn and was back pacing to eventually grab third in a photo finish.
Rod Hennessey drives and trains Blue Star Jet (Blue Burner-Movin Uptown), and also shares ownership of the gelding with Edmonton's Lorne Duffield. Blue Star Jet has never finished worse than second in his six career starts and now boasts $42,099 in purse earnings.
Outlaw Turn N Burn ($9.10) took the fastest division and equalled the two-year-old pacing colt track record with his 1:56.3 winning effort. That record was originally set by Outlaw Gettinrdone and is just three-fifths of a second off the overall two-year-old male mark that gelding Blue Star Jet established in the ASHA Colt Stakes just over a month ago.
Outlaw Turn N Burn followed along in third-place through first-half fractions of :28.4 and :57.3 while 8-5 favourite Keep Coming and 5-2 Classy Artist took turns on the front end. Driver J.F. Gagne then made his move down the backstretch aboard Outlaw Turn N Burn and edged ahead at the 1:26.3 third quarter station. Archie Bunker had followed his cover and was threatening three-wide at the head of the lane, but Outlaw Turn N Burn prevailed by one length over that rival. Keep Coming finished nearly four lengths behind in third.
A Horizon Pace winner earlier this year, Outlaw Turn N Burn earned his first win since changing ownership. The colt is now trained by Marjorie Dumont and owned by 8113564 Canada Ltd. of Sherwood Park, Alta. He has two wins and two thirds in eight starts with career earnings of $26,151.
A recent newcomer to the Open class, Life Signature ($11.40) earned his second straight win in the $12,500 top pace, with a speedy 1:52.4 score on Sunday. The Brandon Campbell-trained and reined gelding fought off Get Thereovernight through panels of :27.4, :57 and 1:24.3 and then drew off by more than seven lengths with a :28.1 closing quarter to win over favourite Who Doesnt, with Get Thereovernight settling for third. The six-year-old son of Life Sign now has two wins from four Open starts for owner Mike Dicks of Carvel, Alta.
To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Century Downs.