All eyes – and a whole bunch of money – were focused on heavily-favoured Northern Royale in Thursday’s second leg of the Wine & Roses Trotting Series at Woodbine Mohawk Park, but that one was upended by Club Belvedere.
James MacDonald fired to the lead from Post 8 with Club Belvedere, who had the field lined up behind her at the quarter pole in :28.3. Cornerstone popped out of the three-hole in the backstretch and motored the lead before being overtaken by Northern Royale shortly past the half-mile marker in :58.
Northern Royale, who was a 1:55.4 winner in last week’s opening leg of the series, rolled the field to the three-quarter pole in 1:27.2 before getting picked off in the closing strides by a re-rallying Club Belvedere. MacDonald used a :28.1 closing panel with the Dagfin Henriksen trainee to post the win by a head over Northern Royale in 1:56.1. Cornerstone was a bang-up third.
Sent off at odds of 8-1, the four-year-old daughter of Holiday Road-First To The Front improved her 2020 record to 2-1-1 from four starts for owner Dr. Michael Venneri of St. Catharines, Ont. The eight-time winner pushed her lifetime earnings to $65,812 with the win.
To view results for Thursday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Thursday Results – Woodbine Mohawk Park.