Yoda Queen and Alabama Hannah headlined a pair of $18,000 divisions comprising round two of the Niagara Pacing Series featured on the mid-December Friday evening card at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
The series is for three-year-old pacing fillies that were non-winners of $60,000 lifetime as of Oct. 31.
In the first of two divisions, Yoda Queen (pictured above) circled a short field to take a new lifetime mark of 1:53.4 with Andy Moore working out the winning trip for trainer/owner Jamie Doig.
Honey Love (Bob McClure) left from the inside post to establish the lead over the field that reduced to five with opening round winner Ladyterra scratched sick. She set fractions of :28, :57.2 and 1:25.4 with Yoda Queen advancing from the back during the third panel and drawing clear down the stretch for the two-length victory. Honey Love settled for second with Premier Delight (Doug McNair) rounding out the top three.
A fifth-place finisher in the first leg of the series, Yoda Queen was sent off as the 2-1 second choice here and paid $6.40 to win. After going winless in five freshman starts, the All Bets Off-J M Chicago filly has won nine of her 21 races this year, with Friday's score her first over the Mohawk oval.
Alabama Hannah was a repeat winner in the series, taking her second division in 1:54.4 for driver Louis-Philippe Roy and trainer Meg Crone.
After prompting a recall, Voom Voom (Bob McClure) chased the gate away the second time the fillies lined up and charged to command from post five over insider Alabama Hannah and Saldana Hanover (Doug McNair). Meanwhile, Firstofanera (Tyler Borth) broke stride from fourth in the first turn and was taken to the safety lane inside the pylons, where she raced ahead of the field and completed her own mile.
After the opening quarter, Roy looped 1-5 favourite Alabama Hannah to the lead and held off the resurgent Voom Voom, who closed along the pylons in the stretch, to win by three-quarters of a length. Longshot True That (Sylvain Filion) edged past the first-up Saldana Hanover in deep stretch to gain the upper hand in a photo for show.
Following a 1:52.4 triumph in last Friday's first leg, Alabama Hannah has now won three of her five starts in Canada since joining the Crone stable last month for owner Jeffrey Nanna of Utica, New York. The Huntsville-Upfrontandpersonal filly has won half a dozen of her 19 races lifetime. She paid $2.70 to win.
The $30,000 (added) final of the Niagara Series will be contested on the special Boxing Day afternoon program at Mohawk on Tuesday, Dec. 26.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.