by Ashley Mayotte – WEG Communications
Toronto, ON — It was an evening full of longshot winners. Defy Time and Runaway Misty lit up the toteboard in their respective Lifetime Dream Trotting Series divisions and Mystician pulled off the upset in the lone division of the Willowdale Pacing Series on Saturday night at Woodbine.
New Image Media photo
Defy Time was an upset winner in a division of the Lifetime Dream Trotting Series at Woodbine on Ssaturday night.
At odds of 13-1, Defy Time (Luc Ouellette) survived a first-over journey en route to posting a three-quarter of a length triumph in the first C$35,000 dash.
The Ian Downey trainee sat behind fractions of :28.2, :58.2, and 1:28.3 before dueling with the 1-5 favorite, Sashay (Sylvain Filion), in the stretch. Defy Time got under the wire in 1:57.4. Sashay held on for second and Nordic De Vie (Randy Waples) was third.
“Before I talked to the connections, I thought that maybe I could leave and just sit in until the end and just make one move with her, but going into the first turn, quite a few horses had left,” said Ouellette, following the win. “I thought that some of the tired ones were in the front in the two-hole at that point.
“She had a good year last year and I qualified her before,” he said. “She acted like a nice horse, so we came [first-up]. She was really in hand. She gives 110 per cent out there.”
After breaking stride in the first leg, Ouellette knew he was going to be cautious.
“She is a sweetie, but having said that she is a trotter as well. I was just a little careful at the beginning.”
The 4-year-old daughter of Southfork-Cinnabar Hanover has a lifetime record of 12-3-1 in 23 starts and career earnings of $145,835 for owners Susan Downey of St. George Brant and Scott Maracle of Brantford.
Defy Time paid $28.10 to win.
A photo-finish determined that 25-1 longshot Runaway Misty (Chris Christoforou) bested Firstclassprincess (Brett Miller) in the second and final Lifetime Dream division.
Firstclassprincess, the 7-2 third choice, was the tempo-setter. She held command through splits of :27.2, :57.2 and 1:27.2, but Runaway Misty, who was second-over, was able to get up in the nick of time to stop the clock in 1:56.4.
The 4-year-old mare used a :28.4 final quarter to poke her nose in front of Firstclassprincess at the wire. Cleopatre Duharas (Keith Oliver) finished third.
“At the end I thought I had a good shot at it, but I wasn’t positive,” said Christoforou of the photo-finish. “She is a nice gaited mare. She just gives you that feeling that she is going to do all she can to get you there on time. She is just a pleasure to drive.”
The homebred daughter of Yankee Glide-Brontes Image, who was unraced as 2-year-old, has a lifetime record of 5-2-0 in 10 starts and career earnings of $66,450 for trainer and owner Gordon Henry of Belmont.
Runaway Misty paid $52.50 to win.
The C$75,000 final, for 4 and 5-year-old trotting mares in 2012, who are non-winners of $200,000 lifetime as of midnight, October 31, 2011, is slated for Monday, January 23.