Windsong Grand Ave and Bay Girl turned in top notch efforts on Friday evening at Flamboro Downs in a pair of $49,835 Bud Light Stakes divisions for three-year-old filly pacers
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Windsong Grand Ave rallied off second over cover to kick off Friday’s card with a victory in the first Bud Light division.
Favourite Warm Waffles (Mike Saftic) raced past opening panels of :27.1 and :55.4 while Windsong Grand Ave and driver Robert Shepherd got away fifth from the trailing Post 9 and picked up cover from You See L A (Keith Oliver). Shepherd sent the daughter of Camluck-Jasper Avenue three-wide down the backstretch and edged out Warm Waffles at the third quarter mark timed in 1:24.4. She then opened up two and a half lengths on the field before stopping the clock in 1:54. Warm Waffles stayed for second with All Chocolate (Rick Zeron) coming in third.
Windsong Grand Ave paid $9.40 to win as the 7-2 second choice in the field. Shawn Robinson trains the winning filly for breeder William Loyens of London and Harry Loyens of Ilderton, ON. Windsong Grand Ave has put together a record of 6-1-2 in 15 outings this year to earn $127,771.
The second division went to the front-stepping filly, Bay Girl, and driver Mark MacDonald.
MacDonald sent Bay Girl to the lead from Post 6 and carved out fractions of :27.2 and :55 with favourite Tiz To Dream (Doug McNair) offering up an early challenge before settling for a pocket trip. 37-1 longshot Holiday Shopper (Jason Brewer) then moved underway from sixth and applied pressure past the third quarter mark of 1:24.3, but Bay Girl dug in and was able to hold off her challenger down the stretch for the one length score in 1:53.4. Tiz To Dream finished a length and a half behind in third.
Bay Girl paid $4.60 to win as the 6-5 second choice. The daughter of Royal Mattjesty-Whitley Bay, who won her elimination and the final of Canadian Breeders Championship in July at Mohawk, now sports a sophomore record of 3-1-4 in 11 starts with over $200,000 earned for trainer Casie Coleman and owners Michael, Sam and Pat Sergi of Canton, New York.
In other action, Canada's leading trainer Rene Allard added three more wins to his totals. Pull Up My Socks ($3.50), Awesome Kyle ($4.40) and Matou Rose ($5.60) won their respective assignments giving Allard 143 wins for 2010. J.R. Plante (four wins on the card) drove all three winners.
To view Friday's results, click here.