Ottawa, ON — Rideau Carleton Raceway hosted a battle of the 3-year-old pacing filly heavyweights on Sunday evening (Aug. 25) and fans were treated to a championship display in the $118,500 Gold Series division.

Division leaders Boadicea, Powerful Chris and Sunny Dee were sent off as the top choices in the 10-filly field, with Powerful Chris getting the slight edge over her rivals. Starting from post five with regular driver Bob McClure, Powerful Chris left sharply and led the field to a :26.1 opening quarter. Boadicea and driver Jonathan Drury took over heading for the :54.1 half and continued to set the tempo through the 1:21.4 three-quarters with Powerful Chris in the pocket and Sunny Dee and driver Trevor Henry looming on the outside.

Boadicea turned for home with a 1-1/4 length margin, but McClure hit the accelerator when Powerful Chris reached the passing lane and the fan’s top choice sprinted by the pacesetter to a one length victory in a track record 1:50.2. Boadicea finished second and Sunny Dee was another length back in third.

“What can I say? She’s amazing. Such a pleasure to drive,” said McClure, who steers Powerful Chris for trainer John Pentland and his partners Jack Darling Stables Ltd. and Syllabus Stable. “John (Pentland) has done an excellent job and she keeps improving.”

The mile took almost one full second off the former 3-year-old pacing filly track record of 1:51.1, set by Michelle’s Power in an August 2007 Gold Series event.

“She’s just got so many tricks, this filly. That’s the beauty of her,” said trainer Pentland. “She can race from off the pace, absolutely, but we rarely, rarely leave with her. I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody that she’s that capable of leaving, it’s just not something we use very often.”

Sunday’s victory was Powerful Chris’ third in Gold action this season and boosted her lifetime earnings to $312,394. The Betterthancheddar daughter was also victorious over the Woodbine Mohawk Park oval on June 22 and July 27.

Heading into the last Gold Series event on Sept. 22 at Flamboro Downs, Powerful Chris and Boadicea are tied for top spot in the division standings with 175 points. The top 10 point earners from the regular season will compete in the C$225,000 Super Final at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Oct. 12 and Pentland said Powerful Chris will make a couple more overnight starts in between the remaining Ontario Sires Stakes events.

“She’ll race once or twice. She won’t be over raced for sure, but she hasn’t raced a lot this year. I just want to make sure I keep her up,” said the trainer. “She loves her work, she loves to race. She’s funny, she loves being in her stall and played with and she’s okay for half an hour out in the paddock, but she gets bored fast, she wants to come in and she knows she can jog, she loves jogging. She’s kind of a hard-working homebody.”