Sunny skies greeted the horses, participants and fans for a seven-dash card of harness racing on Saturday (June 4) at Exhibition Park Raceway.
Saturday's card featured the second leg of the New Brunswick Breeders Stakes for three-year-old pacers, the final of the Gary 'Shack' Smith Memorial Pacing Series and a contentious top class pace.
KCs Starlite ($2.10) found the winner's circle in the $4,900 division for fillies, repeating on her first leg success. Stephen Trites mapped out the right formula for the 1-9 favourite — a catch-me-if-you-can challenge that resulted in a 2-1/4 length victory in 2:02.1.
Owned by trainer Charlie Miles along with fellow Fredericton residents Donald Bishop and Bruce MacDonald, KCs Starlite (Source Of Pride - Allamerican Shaina) now sports a 2-0-0-2 summary from her four sophomore appearances. Her career bankroll now stands at $14,687 from 11 starts.
Trailing by more than two lengths turning for home, Frivolous Appeal ($3.20) launched a furious stretch rally to nail favoured Brumby on the wire in the $5,200 N.B. Breeders Stakes second leg for pacing males. Brumby and Adam Merner carved out fractions of :29.3, :59.2 and 1:29.1 and fronted the field with a charted two-and-three-quarter length advantage at the head of the lane. But Dale Spence and Frivolous Appeal saved their best for last, angling out of the two hole in the stretch with powerful strides to pick off the pacesetter. The mile was timed in 2:00 with Brumby three parts of a length back in second.
Frivolous Appeal (Hes Watching - Flaming Diablo) is trained by Blaine McKenna and owned by Susanne MacKeigan of Albert Bridge, N.S. The three-year-old gelding sports a solid 2-1-0 summary from three starts in 2022 and $7,706 in career earnings.
The $5,000 final of the Gary 'Shack' Smith Memorial Series appeared on paper to be Well Did's for the taking. There was a horse, however, intending to bugger up those plans. Bugger Max ($9.30), to be exact. The 12-year-old EPR mainstay and driver Mark Haig made every call a winning one, tripping the timer in 2:01.3 with more than a length to spare over Well Did (Paul Langille) and Jays Little Spark (Spence).
Bugger Max (Believeinbruiser - Spurs Galley) is owned by his trainer Gordon White along with Dale Orr, both of Saint John, N.B. In his 256th lifetime start, Bugger Max picked up his 33rd career victory, with earnings now in excess of $137,000.
Four of the afternoon's dashes came courtesy front-end trips, and that recipe provided the red-hot American Risk with his sixth straight score. With Todd Trites at the controls, American Risk delivered on his 3-5 favouritism in a 1:58.2 on-the-engine performance to take the $2,600 Winners Over Pace by a length over a hard-closing Hunger Pangs (Spence) and Father Ofthe Year (Mitch Downey).
A six-year-old son of American Ideal - Kissing Bandit, American Risk ($3.20) is trained by George Rennison for the Risky Bizz Group of Truro, N.S. He's perfect in 2022, boasting five wins from five attempts and 22 tallies in his career with earnings of $83,527.
For results from Saturday's card, click the following link: Saturday Results - Exhibition Park Raceway.