ELORA, ON — Sophomore pacing colt Its A Good Thing did his best to steal a victory in his first ever Gold Final appearance on Tuesday night, but when the dust settled in the Grand River Raceway stretch it was veteran provincial performer Fast Pay who earned his third Gold title of the season.

Starting from Post 3, Its A Good Thing and driver Randy Waples roared off the wings to a :27.1 opening quarter, while Paul MacDonell eased Fast Pay away from Post 4 and settled into sixth spot on the rail. Waples and Its A Good Thing maintained the lively tempo through a :55.4 half, with elimination winner OK Boromir applying pressure on the outside, and MacDonell continued to sit off the pace in sixth with Fast Pay.

As the field of three-year-old pacing colts swept down the backstretch for the second time, MacDonell changed the status quo. The Guelph resident sent Fast Pay up the outside behind elimination winner Primary Purpose and Mark MacDonald, who were attempting to circle three-wide around the duelling leaders.

Stacked up three wide at the 1:25 three-quarters, the field had thinned by the time the colts reached the top of the stretch. Its A Good Thing was stubbornly hanging on to a one and a half length lead, but Fast Pay had closed to within two lengths of the leader. Stampeding down the stretch, Fast Pay emerged a one length victor, with Lyons Horace closing from mid-pack to be second and pocket sitter Thepaninsulahotel picking up the third-place cheque. Its A Good Thing had to settle for fourth, and Power Off rounded out the top five.

Fast Pay halted the Grand River teletimer at 1:54.4 to claim his third Gold Final victory this season for owners Larry Menary of Cheltenham, Denis Breton of Welland and Phil Silvestri and Joseph Settimi of Hamilton. The Western Terror son has six wins, three seconds and one third to his credit through 15 starts, and his 1:49 personal best established an all-time Ontario Sires Stakes speed record on Aug. 10 at Mohawk Racetrack.

Dave Menary trains Fast Pay, who leapt to the top of the three-year-old pacing colt division standings with his third Gold Final victory. The colt now has 255 points, 30 more than Primary Purpose, a four-time Gold Elimination winner who has been thwarted in all four Gold Final attempts this season. Fast Pay swept his elimination and final in the Gold Series season opener at Rideau Carleton Raceway, failed to make the final in the Georgian Downs event in July, and has delivered a second in the elimination and a victory in the final through the last two Gold Series contests.

Last season’s two-year-old pacing colt Grassroots Champion, Fast Pay has earned $332,504 for his connections through the sophomore campaign to date.

The three-year-old pacing colts make the last Gold Elimination start of their career at Mohawk Racetrack on Oct. 3, with the Gold Final taking place at Woodbine Racetrack on Oct. 10.

Grand River Raceway hosts a second Gold Final event this week, welcoming the three-year-old trotting fillies back to the Elora area for their fourth $130,000 skirmish this Friday evening.

For complete results please go to: http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/racing/results/data/r0901grvrn.dat.