REXDALE, ON — Coventry earned his second Gold Elimination victory of the season with a sparkling effort in the fourth race at Woodbine Racetrack on Saturday night.
Fired off the gate from Post 3 by trainer-driver Doug Ackerman, Coventry captured the lead early and took the field of three-year-old trotting colts through fractions of :28.1, :58.1 and 1:27.4. The Mr Lavec son faced heavy pressure from favourite In Conchnito though the final turn, but dug in down the stretch to score the 1:56.2 victory by three-quarters of a length.
“He’d never had the lead before,” said Ackerman after the race, “But he was up to the challenge and I was impressed with that.”
The win was Coventry’s third through eight starts this season and his second in Gold Elimination action. He captured a May 15 elimination at Mohawk Racetrack in 1:58.2 and then finished second by a head in the May 23 Gold Final. Following the Gold Series season opener Ackerman hauled the colt home to Michigan for the William Connors Memorial Trot at Hazel Park where he finished second in his elimination and came back the next week to take the final in a personal best 1:56.1. One week later he was third in an elimination of the Goodtimes Trot at Woodbine and then, hampered by Post 10, finished sixth in last week’s $322,700 final.
“When I first started with him this year, I was worried he hadn’t gotten fast enough,” said the Warren, MI resident who shares ownership on the colt with Ada Jean Ackerman, also of Warren. “But when he went to Hazel (Park) he picked it up and got faster.”
In Conchnito earned the second-place finisher’s share of the $50,584 purse, while Flight Dream picked up the third-place cheque. Fourth and fifth-place finishers Kings Ransom and Erics Image also advanced to the $130,000 Gold Final at Woodbine next Saturday, July 3.
Reigning Gold Final champ Witness Perfection kept his Ontario Sires Stakes win streak alive with a narrow 1:57.4 victory over Loose Change Louie in the first elimination. The San Pellegrino colt and driver Trevor Ritchie powered by early pacesetter Loose Change Louie at the half-way marker and had established a two length lead by the time the colts turned for home, but Loose Change Louie rallied and narrowed the gap to a nose by the wire.
“I wasn’t looking at the fractions,” said trainer Cal Campbell after the race, timed in :28, :58.3, 1:27.1 and 1:57.4. “I was just hoping Trevor (Ritchie) would hang on.”
Owner Dottie Morone, of Cedar Post Management LLC in Pemberton, NJ, moved Witness Perfection into Campbell’s barn just one week before Saturday night’s contest and the trotter responded with a markedly improved performance over the ninth-place finish he delivered in a non-winners of three races event at Woodbine on June 14.
Fans were hesitant about the colt after his lacklustre performance earlier in the month and sent him off as their second choice behind Samuel Oaks, who made an early break and finished out of the money.
Armbro Balance was one length back in third spot and Shipps Cruiser and Angus Scot also advanced to the July 3 Gold Final out of the first elimination.