Trainer Rod Therres sent out five horses on Thursday (Sept. 26) at Fraser Downs, none of them picked as morning line choices in their respective races. Those horses raced like they had chips on their shoulders.
Pacers sent out by the Surrey, B.C.-based Therres won four races on the Thursday card, with two of those winners coming in stakes action.
The card started with two $15,000 divisions in the first leg of the Robert Millbank Memorial Breeders Stakes for two-year-old colt pacers. A debuting West Coast Beach captured that division in a swift 1:53.4, establishing a new track record in the process. Rod Therres trains, drives and co-owns the homebred son of Sunshine Beach from his stakes-winning mare Village Janus with Veikko Pajunen of Vancouver, B.C. The mile time equaled the mark of Ima Dude for two-year-old male pacers and shaved two-fifths of a second off the gelding mark previously held by Major Winker.
Salvadors Sun broke his maiden in the second Millbank division, popping the pocket on favoured Strateontilmorning (Brandon Campbell) in the final turn and then powering away to a two-length victory in 1:57.4 for driver Glenn White and trainer Rick White. Rick co-owns the son of Mystician - Degas Protege with Janet White of Surrey and Wayne Foster of Chilliwack, B.C.
The sophomore full-sister to West Coast Beach, Ocean Wind followed her sibling's lead and captured the first $15,000 Mary Murphy Breeders Stakes division for three-year-old pacing fillies. Therres once again handled the lines, guiding Ocean Wind up the passing lane after a pocket trip behind favoured Mrs Suhwiggins (Campbell) to hold off Out Of Left Field (Kelly Hoerdt) in 1:56.1. Therres and Pajunen bred and own Ocean Wind (Sunshine Beach - Village Janus), now a winner of half her eight seasonal starts.
Favoured Hottieonthehorizon (Hoerdt) track down pacesetting Tough It Out (John Chappell) in deep stretch to win the second opening leg Murphy division by two lengths in 1:55.1. Hoerdt co-owns the daughter of Vertical Horizon - As Hot As Promised, now a seven-time winner on the season, along with trainer Rick Lancaster and Leslie Godlien of Langley, B.C.
Hoerdt finished the night with a driving hat trick, bringing his driving totals for the season over the million-dollar mark for the first time in his career.
After the stakes action concluded, Therres picked up two more wins on the training and owning side, appearing in the winner's circle with maiden-breaker Benny Barsik (Chris Linford, 1:57.2, $26.20) and wire-to-wire winner Hurried Romance (Therres, 1:57.2, $6.30).
To view the results from Thursday's card at Fraser Downs, click the following link: Thursday Results - Fraser Downs.