Trotting mare Charmed Life kept her December record perfect with another victory against Preferred company in Saturday night's special at Woodbine Racetrack. Meanwhile, Chris Christoforou and Carmen Auciello secured the driving and training titles as the 2014 WEG season concluded.
Facing a field consisting mainly of horses and geldings, Charmed Life scored her third straight victory in the $34,000 Preferred as she tracked down Daylon Magician once again, in 1:54.2, with driver Jody Jamieson aboard for trainer David Menary.
Charlie Is A Joker (Mike Saftic) left from post six to establish the early lead over insider Fearless Man (Trevor Henry) with Daylon Magician (Jack Moiseyev) advancing outside from the seven-hole. As the trotters raced by the first quarter in :28.2, Daylon Magician cleared to command and Fearless Man launched his attack from third.
Fearless Man challenged the leader down the backstretch and edged ahead, but Daylon Magician fought back and regained the lead as they passed the midway mark in :57.1.
As Fearless Man took back into the pocket, Daylon Magician opened up four lengths on top heading to three-quarters in 1:24.3 and hoping to stave off any late-closers this week. However, Charmed Life had followed along in fifth yet again and she swept wide around first-up Fork (Mario Baillargeon) before reeling in the $1.7 million earner down the stretch to prevail by half a length. The late-rallying mare's final quarter was clocked in :28.2.
Charlie Is A Joker finished four lengths behind in third while early trailers Catch The Dream (James MacDonald) and O'Brien Award finalist Riveting Rosie (Paul MacDonell), the other mare in the field of eight, earned the final paycheques in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Charmed Life paid $2.90 to win as the 2-5 favourite. The four-year-old Majestic Son mare has won nine of her 25 starts this year while adding $285,377 in purses to her $735,257 bankroll for her Ontario connections. The Miss Versatility runner-up is owned by Menary Racing Inc., Brad Gray and Michael Guerriero.
The Saturday night card at Woodbine Racetrack wrapped up the 2014 Standardbred racing season and although there was little drama for the WEG driving title, the final card was needed to decide the season’s top trainer.
Chris Christoforou entered Saturday evening with a comfortable eight-win lead over Jody Jamieson in the drivers standings, but Carmen Auciello came into the final card with only a two-win lead over Richard Moreau for the training title.
Both trainers sent out a plethora of horses Saturday evening, with Auciello’s barn sending out eight starters and Moreau’s sending out 10.
The Moreau-trained Ray Hall captured the first race of the evening to get his trainer to within a win of the top spot, but the Auciello-trained Camaes Fellow extended the lead back to two with a victory in the seventh race. Montreal Phil came through in the 10th race with a victory to get Moreau back to within a win of Auciello, with both trainers sending out their final starter in the next race.
In the 11th race, the Moreau-trained Naked City left hard to grab the early lead, while the Auciello-trained Glammit came first up down the backstretch to battle with the leader. In the stretch, Naked City relinquished the lead late in the mile to finish third, but Glammit dug in to score the first over victory and secure the training title for Auciello.
Auciello finished the 2014 WEG season with 95 victories, while Moreau’s two victories Saturday night gave him a total of 93 wins.
Auciello, 34, is wrapping up a career-best season. The Stouffville, Ontario resident’s starters banked more than $2.6 million this year, with $1.6 million of those earnings coming on the WEG circuit. This is Auciello’s first WEG training title.
As for the driving title, Christoforou completed his 2014 resurgence with his first WEG driving title since 2003.
Christoforou, 43, picked a single victory Saturday night to finish the 2014 season with 226 victories at Mohawk and Woodbine Racetracks. Jamieson, who won two races Saturday evening, finished second with 219 wins and Sylvain Filion, the reigning driving title champion, finished third with 201 wins.
Filion led all drivers in earnings for 2014 on the WEG circuit with over $5.3 million in earnings, while Christoforou drove winners of over $4.8 million.
The 2014 WEG driving title is one of several accomplishments for Christoforou this season, including surpassing 6,000 wins and $100 million in earnings. Christoforou was also recently named a finalist for the O’Brien Award as Canada’s Driver of the Year.
Live racing resumes next Saturday, January 3 at Woodbine Racetrack and continues on a four-nights-a-week schedule of Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday in 2015. Post time each evening is 7:25 p.m.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Racetrack.
(With files from WEG)