Gold Cup & Saucer champion Eighteen shipped to Sudbury Downs for his first start at the Chelmsford, Ont. half-mile track and cruised wire-to-wire in Saturday's elimination round for the new Remember Sudbury Stake.
Returning to Canadian soil after a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Winbak Pace at the Delaware Country Fairgrounds, Eighteen was reunited with regular reinsman Tyler Moore and established the lead from post two in the first $27,500 Remember Sudbury elimination. He carved out fractions of :28.4, :57.4, and 1:26.4 en route to a 1:55 victory. The even-money favourite won by one and a quarter lengths over 19-1 longshot Mach It Big (Jonathan Drury) and Piece Of The Rock (Scott Young).
The four-year-old son of Cams Card Shark, whose career earnings are just shy of $250,000, is owned by trainer Dr. Ian Moore of Guelph, Ont., R G McGroup Ltd. of Bathurst, N.B., and Serge Savard of Saint-Bruno, Que.
Harnessnitencanada also made his Sudbury Downs debut a winning one as he prevailed in the fastest elimination with Justin Turcotte in the bike for trainer Richard Moreau.
The six-year-old Rambaran gelding trailed the five-horse field early on before rallying three-wide at the third quarter mark to take over the lead from Chasin Racin (Mike MacNeill), who had put up panels of :27.2, :56, and 1:25.2. Harnessnitencanada, the 9-2 'longshot' in the field, drew off to win by two and a half lengths in 1:53.2. Favourite Amazon Art (Jonathan Drury) and Casimir Jitterbug (Mario Rivest) finished second and third, respectively.
Harnessnitencanada, who is closing in on the $200,000 career earnings mark, was recently purchased by Gaar Racing Stables of Thornhill, Ont. and Sylvain Descheneaux of Sorel-Tracy, Que.
The stake event is for non-winners of $100,000 this year as of Sept. 8, 2012.
In regular racing action, Belanger Racing Stables' Daddy Warbucks and trainer-driver Gerry Belanger won the $11,400 Not Listed Preferred Pace, defeating pacesetter Draconian (Jonathan Drury) by three-quarters of a length in 1:54.3.