Columbus, MN – The Tuesday evening (July 2) harness racing program at Running Aces featured the $16,000 Fillies & Mares Open Handicap Pace with a talented field of nine facing the starter and looking for the weekly title as top distaffer on the grounds.

Dean Magee” scored” a hat trick with three wins, including a win in the featured Fillies & Mares Open Handicap, Tuesday night at Running Aces. Dee Leftwich Photo.

Juslikeaqueen (Dean Magee) was the talk of the toteboard, coming into this week’s Mares’ feature fresh off of her impressive win in her local debut a week ago, when she launched a furious late-stretch charge to get up at the wire in 1:52.3 for a half-length score. This week, she and leading driver Dean Magee employed a different strategy – they went straight to the lead and never looked back, taking the field through fractions of :27, :56.2, and 1:24.3 before pacing a strong :28.1 final panel to keep the field well in arrears at the wire in 1:52.4.

Juslikeaqueen ($2.40) was 3-½ lengths ahead of 128-1 longshot Strings (Don Harmon) and 46-1 longshot Cay’s Blessing (Darrell Wright) at the finish. The resulting $2 Trifecta of $1,148.20 was an impressive number considering the 1-5 favorite delivered the win.

Juslikeaqueen is the lone mare nominated to the 2019 Dan Patch Free-For-All Pace, which gets underway with elimination races on Sunday, July 14. The 5-year-old daughter of Palone Ranger is owned by Antonia Storer and trained by Tim Maier.

Two $10,000 Opens for 2-year-olds were contested on Tuesday night, one each for pacers and trotters. The $10,000 pace event went to Waco Sassy Kid ($2.80, Nick Roland) who made it two in a row at Running Aces with a 1:58.4 score, and remains a perfect 4-for-4 lifetime for owner Ronald Lamar Burks and trainer Lorenza Gooch. The $10,000 trot event went to Miss Gracious (Dean Magee) who also achieved two wins in a row and also remains unbeaten in those two career races. Miss Gracious ($5.40) is owned and trained by Jeffrey Ryan.

Driver Dean Magee led the night with three winners for a hat trick and remains at the top of the driver standings through the first 21 nights of the 2019 season.

Lemoyne “Mooney” Svendsen completed a natural driving double with tallies in races seven and eight.

The 20-cent Pick-5 Jackpot wager has a carryover of $2,034.71 for the next card of live racing at Running Aces – Saturday (July 6) with first post at 7 p.m. (CDT).