Columbus, MN – The Sunday night (Sept. 2) harness racing feature at Running Aces was the $11,000 open Handicap Pace for horses and geldings, and trainer Gene Miller sent out two of the six contenders in the field. Whatchyastarinat and Bestinthebusiness would deliver the one-two punch for Miller to cap off a pretty good week for the stable.
Whatchyastarinat (Lemoyne Svendsen) was fastest from the gate and had early command at the blistering :26.2 quarter clocking, with race favorite Holdingallthecards (Dean Magee) applying the heavy pressure from the outside and then taking over the front end through the middle stages.
Holdingallthecards led past the :55.4 half and the 1:24.1 three-quarters but was being hounded by Bestinthebusiness (James Yoder) who was pouring it on from the first-over position.
As they straightened for home, Whatchyastarinat joined the battle at the inside for a three-way charge to the wire, with Whatchyastarinat surging fastest of all to the line for a half-length tally over his stablemate Bestinthebusiness in a lifetime best mile of 1:51.3 with Holdingallthecards home third by one length in a game effort.
Whatchyastarinat ($7.00) is a 6 year old Minnesota-Sired son of Up Front Brad, owned by Wolfswinkel Pacers, he now sports 19 career wins and $104,623 in career earnings. The Miller trained exacta combination of 5-2 paid $35.00.
Bringoverthemoney (Rick Magee) picked up his 9th win of the season in the $8,500 Minnesota-Sired 3 year old boys Trot, with a solid 2 1/2 length victory over SB Fine And Dandy (Tim Maier) and Bragginade (Dean Magee).
Bringoverthemoney ($2.60) is owned by Jasmine Horvat and trained by Brian Detgen. The impressive son of Money Talks is certain to be the favorite in this division on Night of Champions on September 15.
Mimi Marguerite (James Yoder) broke through for her first Running Aces win in the $8,500 Minnesota-Sired 3 year old filly Trot with a front-running score from post six, she was never in doubt in a solid 1:59.2 career best performance.
The daughter of Braggart had been runner up in this division five times this season, but was finallly able to find her way to the winner's circle tonight for owners Jeanne Marquis and Jesse De Long and trainer Justin Anfinson.
Live Racing continues at Running Aces three nights per week through September 15. The 20 cent Jackpot Pick-5 wager now has a carryover of $32,959.05 for this coming Tuesday night (Sept. 4) with first post at 7:00 pm CDT.
By Darin Gagne', for Running Aces