The Sunday harness racing card at Running Aces featured a career milestone for both horse and driver, as 21 year old Brady Jenson steered his trainee Mac Anover to victory in the $3,500 Maiden Pace.
The victory marked the first lifetime pari-mutuel win for both horse and driver. Jenson is from a big Harness Racing family based in Iowa, and has been training horses here at Running Aces for the past two seasons, and while he has had numerous training victories and has driven winners at the fairs, Brady had not yet picked up a pari-mutuel win, until tonight that is.
Brady sent his charge sharply from the gate from post one to secure the pocket position behind the race favorite No Regrets Ivy (James Yoder) and waited patiently in that spot until the top of the homestretch before launching a strong attack and powering past the leader to score a sharp 1 ¾ length tally, going away in an impressive mile in 1:54.4.
Mac Anover ($12.80) is a 3 year old gelding by McArdle and is owned by Larry Jo Jenson.
V Mack posted another impressive gate-to-wire win to make it 4 in a row with Driver Luke Plano in the sulky for Owner/Trainer George Reider in a $6,000 claiming pace. V Mack ($3.80) was heavily favored in tonight’s contest, and did not disappoint his backers with another dominating score from post 8, he now shows 6 wins in 22 starts and $18,812 this season.
Becky Badger Baby ($8.00) picked up her second seasonal score and 24th lifetime win tonight in a nice $4,600 conditioned Trot. Trainer/Driver Nick Roland was patient as usual with the 5 year old mare by Rail Splitter, and settled her away from the gate last of 6, waiting for the perfect time to launch a rally, and storming down the center of the track in the lane to split rivals and draw away to the wire by 2 lengths in a new lifetime mark of 1:57.3 for Owners Dale Hein and Royal & Barbara Roland.
Drivers Nick Roland, James Yoder and Luke Plano all picked up driving doubles on the Sunday card.
Driver William Hernandez posted his first Minnesota driving victory this evening with PoorLittleRichGirl ($38.60) in 1:54.3, in a $4,000 conditioned pace. It was the first win of the season for the 9 year old mare by Little Steven, owned by Maria Alvarez and also trained by Hernandez.
The next card of live Harness Racing at Running Aces Casino & Racetrack will go to post on Monday night, July 3 at 5:00 pm CDT, a special Holiday Program of Racing, with a carryover in the .20 cent Jackpot Pick-5 wager of $3,963.99 and a carryover for the race 11 hi-5 wager of $4,468.35.
By Darin Gagne, Running Aces Track Announcer