The Father's Day Sunday (June 17) Harness Racing program at Running Aces got off to a soggy start, and saw a one and a half hour delay that forced the cancellation of race one. Heavy rains pelted the track surface on multiple occasions during the hour before scheduled post time, and forced the track maintenance crew to go into beast mode in order to facilitate the evening's racing program. A large holiday crowd waited patiently for the track to be restored to safe conditions, and once the racing began, the action did not disappoint.
The first event of the night went to Scramble Camp ($2.40), who posted an impressive sweeping victory from the back of the pack to blast by his rivals in the lane and win by 4 lengths in 1:58.2 with driver Mooney Svendsen. The eye-opening win came in the $8,800 three-year old open trot, and Scramble Camp now remains undefeated in 4 starts in 2018. He is a gelding by Weight Lifter and is owned by Daniel and Jeralene Roland.
As a testament to the hard work of the track crew, the 7 year old gelding pacer Prodigal ($8.20) posted an impressive 1:52.4 lifetime best victory in the third contest of the night, with driver James Yoder for owner/trainer Mark Anderson. That victory coming in a $6,800 conditioned event.
The $20,000 Running Aces Featured Pace was the drawing card on the night, and it indeed drew a field of talented pacers. Hawk's Red Chief (Dean Magee) was the post time favorite at 8-5, fresh off a near miss by a neck in his last start. Second wagering choice Stevensville (5-2) fired fastest from the gate with Rick Magee to take an early lead from the other fast leaver Firedrake who was also (5-2). Nick Roland yielded with Firedrake to sit the pocket, while Stevensville posted the early fractions of 26.3 and 56.1. In the second half, Bestinthebusiness got rolling as driver James Yoder sent him first-over and on the attack, he grinded along-side the front runner Stevensville down the backstretch, and was able to stick a neck in front at three-quarters in 1:23.3.
From there, the 10 year old gelding by Another Mile stayed ultra-game, fighting off strong late rallies from a pair of longshots to post a one length tally in 1:52.2 over To The Limit (Tim Brown) and Make It Big (Steve Wiseman), with Hawk's Red Chief and Firedrake completing the top 5. Bestinthebusiness ($14.00) is owned by Brett Boyd Racing, Inc. and trained by Gene Miller. The talented pacer has very impressive career numbers with 43 lifetime wins and 103 top 3 finishes, while bankrolling $410,330. Winning driver James Yoder completed a Hat-Trick on the program with the feature-race tally. Driver Lemoyne "Mooney" Svendsen also completed a Hat-Trick on the program.
By Darin Gagne', Running Aces Track Announcer