Popular Names In Friday Qualifers

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Published: November 3, 2016 10:04 am EDT

A number of performers returning from lengthy layoffs -- including an O'Brien Award recipient and a Little Brown Jug elim winner -- will surely warrant attention during Friday morning's qualifiers at Mohawk Racetrack.

With eliminations for the Fall Final Four stakes on the horizon in a week's time, the Friday morning qualifying session features freshman the likes of Candlelight Dinner, Gravitator, Ideal Wheel and Windsong Napoleon slated for tune-ups prior to the lucrative late season stakes at Woodbine Racetrack.

Those names might be expected. Seeing a pair of horses that won eliminations of the 2013 Little Brown Jug return from lengthy layoffs isn't as predictable.

In the first qualifier of the morning, older pacers Vegas Vacation and Resistance Futile line up in posts two and three respectively. These two pacers lined up in those exact same spots on September 19, 2013 in the second heat of the Little Brown Jug after each won a heat earlier that day. Vegas Vacation would go onto win the second heat for the straight-heat Jug victory.

Owned by West Wins Stable of Cambridge and Anthony Beaton of Waterdown, Ont., Vegas Vacation last started in the 2015 Ben Franklin final. His five-year-old campaign was limited to just six starts in which the O'Brien Award winner picked up five top-three finishes.

Resistance Futile last started in September 2015 for trainer Blair Burgess and owners Burgess Stable of Rockwood, Champagne Stable of Toronto and James Walker of Port Perry, Ont. The 16-time winner won his Jug elim in 1:49.3, at the time just one-fifth of a second off the world record co-held by Rock N Roll Heaven and Somebeachsomewhere.

While not the stakes-winning headline grabber the likes of his pacing counterparts, a popular trotter will return from a two-year layoff later that session. Now 11, Chinnys Wings will line up in the fourth qualifier of the morning. The 42-time winning son of Armbro Ricochet - I Quiver Not last competed on Sept. 9, 2014. Owned by trainer Doug Bowins, Chinnys Wings has earned the majority of his $365,000 bankroll racing on the smaller tracks in Ontario after making headlines with a 18-win debut season as a four-year-old in 2009.

Another stakes winner got the jump on this group and returned from a lengthy layoff one week ago. Three Of Clubs, the 2013 Battle of Waterloo champ, was back in action last week after more than a year on the shelf. His last pari-mutuel start for owner/trainer Gregg McNair and co-owners Gregg McNair, Keith Waples and Tony Lawrence was logged in September 2015.

To view the entries for the full qualifying session, click one of the following links: Friday Qualifiers - Mohawk Racetrack -- Friday Program Pages - Mohawk Qualifiers

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