by John Berry, for Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — In a pulsating finish, OKHeartbeat, driven by Kevin Wallis, eked out a photo finish win in PompanoPark’s mid-week feature, the $11,000 Open Pace for Mares, Wednesday, Jan. 4.

The 5-year-old daughter of Sportswriter, trained byAngela Coleman for Mark Winship and the Dandy Farms, got up in the final strideto nail the pacesetting Metro Glide, handled by Tom Jackson, by a scant nose in1:52.2.

Miss Mady, with Ricky Macomber, Jr. handling the lines,was third, just a neck off the winner in the three-way thriller. Arodasi wasfourth in a field scratched down to this quartet with the scratch of Drea’sGood Powow.

At the outset, Miss Mady blasted off the wings into anearly lead but yielded to Metro Glide at the opener in :27.4.

Just past that initial marker, Wallis thought aboutmaking a quarter move but, after tilting out, ducked back in and was content tostay in third past the half in :56.

With the pace quickening on the backside, OK Heavenlyleft her cozy pocket in third and began gnawing forward, but she was unable toreally put that much of a dent on the leader as a :27.3 third panel broughtMetro Glide past the third station in 1:23.3.

In the lane, OK Heavenly continued to chew away on theleader, with Miss Mady finding her second wind and also gaining with the trioof mares hitting the wire together with the photo finish camera determining thewinner.

In a post-race interview, driver Kevin Wallis related, “Iwas thinking of making a quarter-move to the front but thought better of it asthe leader looked pretty intent on the front end of things. On the backside, Ithought I’d better get going but I wasn’t too confident when we didn’t gainmuch during that third quarter.

“She got there, though, but, to tell the truth, I wasn’tsure about it at the wire.”

The win was OK Heavenly’s 14^th lifetime andvaulted her over the $150,000 in career bounty—now $154,827 to be precise.

As the 2-5 tote-board favorite, OK Heavenly paid $2.80 towin.