The matching $50,000 HorsePlayer Interactive and WEGZ Series Finals were for aged mares and male pacers that non-winners of $50,000 (three-year-olds $75,000) in 2011 with a minimum 10 starts.
Pacing mare Bay Girl pushed her lifetime earnings over the half-million dollar mark with a front end victory in the HorsePlayer Interactive Series Final.
Like her stablemate, Bay Girl was making her third start for her new owner. Fresh off a victory in the second leg of her series, she was deemed the 5-2 favourite by the betting public and made a confident backstretch brush from the pocket to take over command from D Gs Tinkerbell (Luc Ouellette) after a :27-second opening quarter.
Driven by Paul MacDonell, the Royal Mattjesty-Whitley Bay mare raced past the half in :58.2 before being confronted by the first over Jamaica Hanover (Jody Jamieson), who came within half a length of the leader as they approached three-quarters in 1:23.3.
However, Bay Girl gave that rival the cold shoulder at the top of the lane and held off runner-up D Gs Tinkerbell and the second over rally of third-place finisher Synergy Seelster (Doug McNair) for the three-quarter victory in 1:52.3.
“She definitely likes to be near or on the front,” Johnson told WEG's Media Department after te victory. “She seems to have more fight in her when she’s in the mix. She trained great all week and I was fairly confident she would get a good piece of the purse money tonight.”
The five-year-old mare is now three-for-five on the year with $46,600 earned and sports a 13-10-7 slate in 54 career starts.
Bay Girl paid $7.20 to win.
Bay Of Sharks survived a long first over journey in the WEGZ Series Final to pull off a sweep of his series.
Driven by Jody Jamieson, the 3-5 favourite found himself parked out early on and was forced to advance first up while Anderlecht (Randy Waples) carved out fractions of :26, :54.1 and 1:22.1.
Bay Of Sharks laid on the pressure as the field approached the third quarter station and surged ahead down the stretch to score by four and a half lengths in 1:50.3. Anderlecht stayed for second while Topcornerterror (Mike Saftic) closed well from the backfield to show.
“You’re always worried when you’re getting parked the whole mile, especially seeing the half in :54-seconds,” said Johnson after the victory. “But, the horse has a lot of class and got the job done.
“He’s a big, strong horse and he had a great week. We knew we did our best to have both horses ready for tonight and it showed.”
The six-year-old Cams Card Shark-Whitley Bay gelding is now four-for-five on the year with $65,520 banked. He sports a career record reading 16-8-8 in 70 starts with earnings totalling $391,007.
Bay Of Sharks paid $2.90 to win.
Jami