Itll Be Fine has been overshadowed by rivals Sunshine Boy and Armycaptin Hanover for most of the spring/winter meet at Fraser Downs, but finally got his time to shine in the $10,000 Preferred Handicap before the session concluded on Friday, May 3.
A seven-time runner-up in the Preferred/Open ranks for trainer Rick Lancaster since the meet began on Feb. 8, Itll Be Fine got his first win of the year with a 1:51.1 career-best performance after watching the favoured foes duel on the front end mid-race.
Itll Be Fine flashed his usual gate speed from post four for driver Dave Hudon through a :26.3 opening quarter before Armycaptin Hanover (Allan Molloy) got the jump on the parked outside assignee, Sunshine Boy (Scott Knight), and looped to the lead. Sunshine Boy, the 4-5 favourite, pressed on and went head-to-head with his foe on the front past the :54.4 half. Armycaptin Hanover, the 2-1 second choice, won that battle as they raced to three-quarters in 1:22.2, but Itll Be Fine won this war as he rallied through the passing lane to prevail by a half-length. Winning for the 16th time in his career, he knocked four-fifths of a second off his lifetime mark.
Armycaptin Hanover, who stepped up to the top level in March and won three of their match-ups since then, settled for second while Itll Be Fine's stablemate Rum N Raisins (John Abbott) closed from the back of the six-pack to nab third-place honours over the meet's seven-time Preferred winner, Sunshine Boy.
Sent postward as the 9-2 third choice, Itll Be Fine rewarded his faithful backers with an $11.30 win payout.
Owned by Lancaster and Leslie Godlien, the five-year-old Hes Watching-Modern Hanover gelding has hit the board in 50 of his 70 career starts while earning just shy of $180,000.
Kelly Hoerdt wrapped up the driving title while Jim Marino took the training title as the win leaders of the winter/spring meet at Fraser. With 51 driving wins, Hoerdt edged out Scott Knight (49) atop the leaderboard, with Dave Hudon (27) rounding out the top three. Marino sent out 37 winners from his stable for the top spot in the trainer standings over Hoerdt (34), with Rod Therres (26) third.
Live harness racing is scheduled to resume at Fraser Downs for the fall meet on Sept. 12 and continue through the end of the year on Thursday and Friday evenings.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Fraser Downs.
(Standardbred Canada)