The featured event on the Saturday evening harness racing card at Running Aces was the $13,000 Minnesota-Sired Open Trot for 4 year olds and up, and it would prove to be an exciting contest right down to the wire.
Dougs Hobby Horse and driver Luke Plano flew off the gate wings from the far outside post 8 to secure the front-running position and control the fractions, while Whatevershesgot with veteran reinsman Mooney Svendsen left alertly from the center of the gate in post 5 to lay claim to the pocket seat behind the leader.
Plano and Dougs Hobby Horse commanded affairs through all three fractional panels of 28.3, 58.2 and 1:27.1, while facing a strong first-over bid from Al Mar Reba Babe (James Yoder) around the final turn and into the lane.
But as they straightened for home, it was Whatevershesgot ($20.00) and Svendsen who took to the inside lane and rallied right past the dueling trotters to the outside, getting up to win by a long neck in 1:57 over Dougs Hobby Horse, with Al Mar Reba Babe home in third.
Whatevershesgot is a 4 year old mare by Sos Lunar Eclipse, she now has won 14 of 48 career races and she is owned and trained by Jenni King.
Also on the Saturday card was the $13,000 Minnesota-Sired 3 year old pace, with Steve's Hot Rod providing an encore to his track record performance from last week. Steve's Hot Rod ($3.20) posted another sharp gate-to-wire victory from post one, stopping the clock in 1:53 tonight with trainer/driver Rick Magee in tow. The impressive winner is a gelding by Voracious Hanover, and has now won 5 races in 16 starts this season, bankrolling $35,852 for owner Kati Sokolowski.
Drivers Rick Magee and Steve Wiseman both picked up doubles on the Saturday program.
Steve Wiseman has a 13 race lead as the current Leading Driver over Nick Roland in second, and Kathleen Plested has a 5 race lead over Nick Roland as the current leading Trainer.
Live Racing continues at Running Aces with 3 more nights remaining in the 2017 season, Sunday September 10 at 6 pm CDT, Tuesday September 12 at 7 pm CDT and Saturday, September 16 at 6pm CDT is closing night of the season, and also Night of Champions, with all of the Minnesota-Sired divisional finals going for $250,000 (est.) in purses.
By Darin Gagne, Running Aces Track Announcer