With Guy Gagnon at the helm, Chat Chat shot to the top and chopped out fractions of :29.1, :57.3 and 1:27.2 before cruising home in :31.2 to stop the clock in 1:58.4. It was nine lengths back to runner-up Northern Inferno, with Homerun Hitter rounding out the top three finishers in the $10,700 trotting tilt.
Gerard Demers trains the five-year-old daughter of Angus Hall-Breathe Easy for 9174 7998 Quebec Inc of Blainville, QC. The mare, who was scooped out of a $6,500 claiming event on November 13, 2011, is undefeated in nine starts since the acquisition. The 23-time winner is closing in on $100,000 in lifetime earnings.
Later on the card a group of six lined up to contest the $13,000 Preferred Handicap, and Told On You was an impressive winner in gate-to-wire fashion for Team Forgie.
Kyle Forgie brushed the six-year-old son of Modern Art-Armbro Told to the engine, and the gelding zipped through fractions of :28.1, :59.4 and 1:28 before using a :30-second closing panel to win by 1-1/4 lengths over Hoboken Hanover in 1:58 over a track rated “good” with a two-second allowance. Ardyne Ace, who did the first-over work, held on to finish third.
Tammy Forgie of Gatineau, QC owns and trains the 21-time winner, who pushed his overall cash stash to $157,552 with the victory.
The evening also turned out to be a profitable one for driver Simon Allard and trainer Rene Allard, who dominated the competition on the 15-race card. They joined forces to score a hat trick thanks to wins with TJs Ellie (1:59.2), Awesome Armbro N (1:58.3) and Chips Shadow (2:05.3).
Simon tacked on victories with the Benjamin Paquette-trained Spacehill (1:59.1) and the Jamie Copley-trained Seagram (2:02.3) to increase his nightly win total to five.