The first leg winner converted off a perfect pocket trip to score in his $30,000 division for driver Jody Jamieson.
The Colin Johnson trainee sat second behind tempo-setter C Major Hanover (Sylvain Filion), who put up splits of :27.3, :56.1 and 1:24.1, before coming on to win by 2-1/4 lengths in 1:52.2. Mach Wheel (Joe Hudon) got up for second and C Major Hanover faded to third, while Ruff Me Up (Keith Oliver) faded to seventh after a three-hole trip.
“He’s won both legs,” said Jamieson of Bay Of Sharks. “Short of drawing post nine or 10 in the final, I think he is the best in the race. He has been a good horse for a long time, he’s just been a little misunderstood in the past, but he really looks like he is rounding into form and is maybe the best he has ever been right now.”
The 6-year-old son of Cams Card Shark-Whitley Bay scored his fourth win in five starts this year for owner Michael Sergi of Canton, New York. The 15-time career winner has stashed away $366,007 in his career.
Bay Of Sharks paid $2.50 to win.
The Shaun Mc Donald-trained Lucky Terror scored in the final tilt to give Jamieson a driving double.
Odds-on favourite Warners Speedy Art (Scott Zeron) cut out fractions of :27.1, :55.2 and 1:23.2 before the backfield sprung to life in the stretch. Lucky Terror, who sat third for most of the mile, found late speed to get up for the win in 1:53.1, three-quarters of a length ahead of the late-rallying Topcornerterror (Mike Saftic) and Lookin For A Fight (Larry Small).
The 5-year-old gelded son of Western Terror-Miracle Luck scored his second win in five starts this season. The 12-time career winner has banked $138,668 in his career for owner Glenview Livestock Ltd. of Wallenstein, Ont.
Lucky Terror paid $7.70 to win as the second choice.
Curator pulled off a 7-1 upset while scoring his first triumph of his aged campaign in 1:54.2 in the other WEGZ Series division.
Draconian (Jody Jamieson) showed early speed off the gate, which caused Curator to settle into the pocket spot, but into the first turn Billy Davis Jr. took the four-year-old gelding to the front, passing the quarter pole in :28.2.
The field was lined up in program order as Curator front-stepped his way to the half in :58. He continued to hold command past the three-quarters in 1:26.1.
Curator’s margin of victory increased as a second-sitting Midnite Romp (Rick Zeron), who had launched an unsuccessful first-up attack at the half, broke stride in deep stretch. Runner-up Red Bugler (Scott Zeron) was 2-1/2 lengths behind the winner and first leg winner Anderlecht (Randy Waples), who was the 1-5 favorite, finished third.
“Last week he got locked in right from the start,” said Davis Jr. “Two horses left from the start and he got pinned in and never got any room. This week as soon as Jody (driver Jamieson) made front, Curator was right on top of his helmet and he felt like he wanted to go, so I just let him. We got to the front pretty easily and no one came at him. He won for fun.
“In the final, there will be a lot of good horses in there and he is not going to get everything his own way like he did today,” he added. “He is a nice horse, but he is going to have a lot of things to overcome next week.”
The son of American Ideal-Gallery Hop, who never finished worse than third in all 10 of his sophomore starts, is an eight-time career winner. By capturing the lion’s share of the purse, the bay lifts his lifetime earnings to $101,800 for trainer/owner Jack Darling.
Curator paid $17.60 to win.
The C$50,000 final, for pacers 4-year-old and older who are non-winners of $50,000 (3-year-olds $75,000) in 2011 (minimum 10 starts in 2011), is slated for Saturday, February 18.
The WEGZ Series, formerly the Ontario Boys Pacing Series, was renamed in 2011 after WEGZ Stadium Bar, a 23,000 sq. ft. sports entertainment complex in Vaughan. Click here to visit WEGZ.com.