After finishing second and third in the opening legs, Hot Night kicked it up a notch on Saturday at Fraser Downs to take the $100,000 Princess of the Pacific Final
.
Trained and driven to victory by Brandon Campbell, the six-year-old mare by Northern Luck out of One Hot Lady got away seventh from Post 5 as B Bar Marilyn (Tim Brown) led the field past the first quarter in :26.4. With the parked Im Bossy (Bill Davis) tiring at the half in :55.1, Lil Kim (James Burke) popped the pocket and brushed to command. That one passed three-quarters in 1:24 while Hot Night was gearing up from second-over and making her way around horses. The 12-1 longshot sprinted home in :28.3 to win by seven lengths in a career best 1:53.3 over a sloppy track.
Lil Kim stayed for second while Furious Five (Serge Masse) rounded out the top three.
The victory was Hot Night’s first of the year and 17th in her career. The winner’s share of the purse pushed her earnings to $233,038 for Jim Macphail and George Rogers of Calgary, Alta.
Another star of the 11-race program was Rod Hennessy of Millet, Alta., who scored a training grand slam.
His first win set the tone for the rest of the afternoon as Pumpjack took a new mark of 2:01 in the opener. Allamerican Boo coasted to a five length score in the fourth race in a career best 1:59, then Sudsy took top honours in the following fifth race prevailing in 1:58.1. Mike Hennessy drove all three winners then handed the reins over to Rod for a victory in the eighth with Misty Waters. She equaled her mark winning in 2:00.1 giving Rod his ninth win of the year and a total of 1,658 in his career.
To view Saturday's results, click here.