After guiding Outlaw Blue Isle to her first Fillies & Mares Preferred win on Friday, Dave Kelly engineered the winning trip with stablemate Bonus Round in the Preferred Pace on Saturday, April 20 at Century Downs to give that pacer his first top class tally.
Bonus Round made his first start of the Century Downs meet last week when Alberta's apex predator, Shark Week was also in the mix. As expected, a hungry Shark Week easily devoured his rivals with Bonus Round finishing fourth.
This time around, a solid field of seven sans Shark Week went postward in the $12,500 Preferred Pace. The public put its predominant support behind veteran Samba Beat, making his local debut after a solid 1:54.4 qualifying effort eight days ago.
Phil Giesbrecht clearly felt confident in Samba beat as well, asking the post three starter for early speed as the gate wings folded. Samba Beat emerged from an early tussle with Bonus Round (Dave Kelly) and Keystone Tenacious (Blake Piwniuk) and made the top to dictate the fractions.
Bonus Round used his pylon-adjacent starting spot to occupy the pocket as Samba Beat salsaed through splits of :27.3, :58.3 and 1:26.2...a much slower tempo from last week's Preferred, and was certainly not too fast of a pace for Bonus Round. Kelly right-lined Bonus Round from the pocket around the far turn, and the pacer quickly showed his heels to his rivals. Through a :28 closing quarter, Bonus Round breezed through the stretch and pulled away to win by more than four lengths. The mile was timed in 1:54.3.
Icy Blue Scooter (Nathan Sobey) finished second with Samba Beat best of the rest in third.
Owned by Pick 6 Stable of Strathmore, Alta., Bonus Round (Santanna Blue Chip - Bouncing Hanover) picked up his first win of the year and 14th lifetime. His earnings now stand at more than $137,000 as a result of that tally, paying $6.50 to win as the 2-1 second choice.
A four-time winner as a driver on Friday, Kelly picked up a training triple on Saturday. Jamie Gray guided Panda Beer (1:56.2; $55.20) to victory for Kelly in the opener before Kelly handled both the training and driving duties on the aforementioned Bonus Round and seventh race winner Lunch Pail Guy (1:57; $4.30).
For full results from Saturday's card of harness racing at Century Downs, click the following link: Saturday Results - Century Downs.
(Standardbred Canada)