Springing from the pocket in the stretch, Hervey Hanover prevailed in a three-way finish to take the $25,000 final of the Pop-Up Series for male pacers on Friday evening (June 17) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Following a narrow loss to Shadow In Red in the opening leg of the series on June 3, Hervey Hanover was a winner over Bayfield Beach in round two last week and bested both of those rivals in the finale.
Bayfield Beach (Bob McClure) led the reduced field of eight (two scratches) through fractions of :28, :56.3 and 1:25 before Doug McNair called on Hervey Hanover from the pocket and they were joined inside by Shadow In Red (Sylvain Filion), who was looking for the series sweep as he shot through at the pylons from third. In the end, Hervey Hanover won by a neck, with the drifting even-money choice Shadow In Red second and Bayfield Beach third. It was more than five lengths back to the rest of the field.
Hervey Hanover paid $7.10 to win as the 5-2 second choice.
The six-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding earned his fourth victory of the year from 23 starts and is now an 18-time winner with more than $267,000 banked lifetime. He is trained by Jodie Cullen and owned by A1stable of Dundas, Ont.
The series was for non-winners of $15,000 in 2022 or not averaging $1,250 per start in 2022 for a minimum of 10 starts.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.