Split The House put on another impressive display to win the $50,400 Summertime Final Saturday night at the harness racing meeting at Mohawk Racetrack.
A field of eight three-year-old pacing colts and geldings contested the final of three-week Summertime Series.
Split The House, who won the second leg, was sent off as the 4/5 favourite and was clearly in a league of his own on this occasion.
The James 'Friday' Dean trainee got away in fourth in the early going, while Poisonous and Sylvain Filion cut the mile and posted an opening-half of :55.3
Around the final turn, driver Randy Waples sent Split The House first up and the public's choice powered up to the leader at the three-quarter pole in 1:23.2.
In the stretch, Split The House cruised by Poisonous and paced home effortlessly to win by 2¾ lengths in 1:50.2.
Rockin In Heaven, the first leg winner, rallied to finish second, while Mr Carrotts was third. Poisonous finished in a dead-heat for fourth with Rustys Overload.
Following the race, Waples said the first up trip was no issue for Split The House.
"He was well in hand tonight. He's just a really nice horse and it worked out somewhat good," said Waples.
"I did have speed to chase, but he was more than willing to be sitting out there and head of the lane there I asked him to pace and he was gone."
A son of Rocknroll Hanover, Split The House was undefeated in three starts heading into the Pepsi North America Cup eliminations, but failed to make the final after a fourth place finish.
The Dean trainee also finished fourth in the consolation, but has now quickly rebounded with a pair of victories.
Waples said the North America Cup didn't go as planned, but he has full confidence in Split The House.
"In my estimation he's one of the best three-year-olds out there, it's just the truth," said Waples.
"He was kind of misbehaving a little bit behind the gate (in the North America Cup) and 'Friday' put a screen on him and he's just a different horse now."
"The last couple of weeks he seems like he's turned a corner."
The impressive victory in the Summertime stamps Split The House as one of the top three-year-olds locally and Waples believes the colt deserves another crack at Grand Circuit competition.
"I think he definitely deserves to be with them."
"If you've got a good field of horses you can find one to follow and I just think this horse is going to go a big mile before the year is up."
Split The House is owned by Scott Horner, Peter Milligan and 'Friday' Dean. The sophomore pacing colt now has six wins from eight starts in his first season of racing for earnings of over $77,000.
The clocking of 1:50.2 matched his career-mark set in his third career start. Split The House paid $3.70 to win.
In order to be eligible to the Summertime, the three-year-old pacing colts and geldings had to be non-winners of $30,000 lifetime as of March 31, 2015.
Split The House
Mark McKelvie