Century Downs track record holder Shark Week turned in another speedy performance on Friday evening (July 7) to earn his sixth straight victory in the $14,000 Preferred Handicap Pace, fighting off rivals on both sides to the finish.
Leaving from the outside post six, Shark Week, who had won his past five races by a combined 33-3/4 lengths, was stretched out through a scorching :25.4 opener and was still able to hold off his rivals late to win by a half-length in 1:50.4 for the father-son, trainer-driver team of Rod and Mike Hennessy.
Samba Beat (Phil Giesbrecht) made Shark Week work for the lead off the gate and was hot on his heels through middle splits of :54.3 and 1:22.2 but settled for second along the pylons over outside closers Ernesto Delacruz (J.F. Gagne) and Bonus Round (Dave Kelly).
Shark Week, Western Canada's fastest pacer by virtue of his 1:49.2 score two starts back on June 3, was the 1-9 favourite and paid $2.30 to win.
Owned by his trainer and partner Lorne Duffield, Shark Week has won 11 of his 15 races this year while earning $78,990. A 31-time winner in his career spanning 65 starts, the five-year-old Vertical Horizon-Shark Gone Bad gelding has banked $278,475 lifetime.
Later on the card, some sibling rivalry was on display as a trio of offspring out of the Matts Scooter mare Jills Sooter faced off in the seventh race.
Following a 1:53.2 career-best victory last week ahead of his younger half-sibling Matts A Mystician, the favoured Wink N Win, a six-year-old gelding sired by Wink N Atcha, led wire-to-wire to win the $8,900 conditioned-claiming pace, just missing his mark by one-fifth of a second, for trainer/driver Brandon Campbell.
Matts A Mystician, a four-year-old sired by Mystician, tried it first-up and finished sixth with broken equipment this time out while older bro Icy Blue Scooter, a 10-year-old son of Blue Burner, was back in action off a layoff and rallied wide from third-over to finish third -- both trained by Nathan Sobey.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click the following link: Friday Results - Century Downs.