by John Berry, for Pompano Park
Pompano Beach, FL — Two high class claiming events highlighted the Sunday night (March 29) racing card at Pompano Park with Dont Tell Rusty taking the $10,000 pacing event for $20,000-$25,000 claimers and Canadian Touch achieving top honors in the $8,500 pace for $15,000 claimers. Both feature winners were trained by Paul Holzman and both scored wins in the identical time of 1:51.3.
Dont Tell Rusty, owned by Melvin Fink, zipped out of the gate with alacrity and posted panels of :27, :55.2 and 1:23.1 before putting away his foes by sprinting home in :28.2 to score a handy win measuring two lengths over T’s Electric and Tom Sells. JJ’s Doughnut finished third for Kevin Wallis while the 3-5 favorite, Johnny Grippa, finished fourth after sticking his nose in front a stride or two past the third station. Acton Onelasttime finished fifth.
A 6-year-old son of Tell All, Dont Tell Rusty won for the fourth time in 13 starts this semester to push his 2015 earnings to $29,065 and $120,426 lifetime. Fourth choice on the board, Dont Tell Rusty paid $12.40 to win.
Meanwhile, Canadian Touch made a sharp move just short of the :26.4 opener and proceeded to carve out panels of :55.2 and 1:23.2 before sprinting away from his competition with a :28.1 finale to stop the timer in 1:51.3 for Mike Micallef. Major Stone, with Kevin Wallis in the bike, chased the winner from the garden spot the entire route and finished second, three lengths away, while Fearless Chip, handled by Aaron Byron, was third. Hurricane Howard and Ahead Ofthe Curve earned the final two awards in the septet.
Canadian Touch, 6-year-old son of Camotion trained by Paul Holzman for owner Ameer Najor, won for the fourth time this season, sending his yearly earnings to $23,573. He’s banked $124,927 lifetime. As the 1-2 toteboard favorite, Canadian Touch paid $3.00 to win.
In the feature conditioned trot, Saint Patty’s Doll, finally out of Open company, helped trainer Jake Huff celebrate his birthday with a popular ($3.80) win for owner and wife Rosie Huff, covering the mile in 1:57.
The 6-year-old daughter of Conway Hall won for the second time this year — 17th lifetime — to send her career bounty to $143,045.
In other news, driver Dave Ingraham continued to enhance his reputation with “outsiders” at Pompano Park, scoring yet with another long proposition, Cascata, in the Sunday night opener at odds of 16-1. Trained by Michel Plouffe for owner Elizabeth Zimmerman, Cascata knifed between horses late in the mile to score in 1:53.2 to return a $35.60 mutuel to his faithful.
Ingraham also scored with the 9-year-old warrior A Fool For Mark in 1:52.1, grinding by late to score for the 42nd time during his career measuring 195 starts. A Fool For Mark is owned and trained by Dave’s son, Dustin.
Not to be outdone by “dad,” Dustin Ingraham then came back one race later to score a popular victory ($3.00) with his own Notorius Terror, stopping the timer in 1:55.3.
Also interesting to note is the fact that Dave Ingraham has won 33 races at Pompano this meeting in 344 starts through Sunday night’s program and an investment of $2 to win in each of those starts ($688) would have resulted in a return of $822.40 — a profit of $134.40.
As Pompano patron Gary Andrews said, “That’s a heckuva lot better return than my bank gives me!”
Also of note, Pompano Park’s 50 cent Pick-5 wager went unclaimed for the second consecutive program and Monday’s Pick-5 begins with a carryover of $8,500 and features a $30,000 guarantee.
Pompano Park’s Super Hi-5, once again, had multiple winning tickets — eight — on the winning combination of 10-4-3-6-2 with the 20 cent consolation returning $761.54 and the carryover for Monday night’s program escalating close to $80,000. Post time is 7:30 p.m.