With the eliminations for Canada’s most prestigious race for older trotters – the Maple Leaf Trot – a little more than a week away, it’s safe to say San Pail is heading into the event fighting fit
.
The homebred rolled to an impressive victory in the $50,000 Open Trot at Mohawk Racetrack on Thursday evening, and it looked as though he barely broke a sweat in the process.
San Pail snuck into an early five-hole from his post seven perch on the starting gate, and he held that position for driver Randy Waples for most of the mile. Enny Youngman and Prayer I Am, who hooked up in a front-end battle through panels of :27.3 and :56.2, set things up perfectly for someone from the backfield. That someone proved to be San Pail.
The five-year-old son of San Pellegrino-Village Beauty managed to squeeze off the pylons on the way to the three-quarter pole, and when Waples showed the gelding racetrack he took off. A :27.1 final frame sealed the deal for the Rod Hughes trainee, who drew off the win by a length over Gutsy Volo. Windsun Lane rounded out the top three in the 1:54.1 affair.
Hughes and the gelding’s breeder, Glenn Van Camp of Port Perry, ON, share ownership on the square-gaited star. The victory was the eighth of the season in just 16 trips postward for San Pail, who has stashed away in excess of $258,000 this season and more than $583,000 in his career.
To view Thursday’s harness racing results, click here.