from harness publicists across North America

Wednesday night’s (Aug. 24) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Running Aces and Batavia Downs.

Imapixieatmidnight tops 2-year-old trotters at Running Aces

Columbus, MN — The $15,000 Minnesota-sired 2-year-old trot was the featured event on the Wednesday card at Running Aces and the filly Imapixieatmidnight (by SOS Lunar Eclipse) would post her second lifetime win and continue the overall dominance of the fillies in this division all season long.

Dee Leftwich photo

Imapixieatmidnight trotted to a new lifetime mark of 2:03.

Trainer/driver Nick Roland sent his filly right to the lead from post three and dominated the early stages through fractions of :30.4, 1:01 and 1:31.1 and then was able to hold off a furious late charge from last week’s winner Liquor’skwikker (Rick Magee), stopping the clock in 2:03 for a new lifetime mark. She is owned by Set The Pace Racing, LLC and paid $6.40 for every win ticket.

Another impressive performance was turned in by Goody Two Socks, an 8-year-old gelding pacer by Restless Yankee, who delivered his 17th lifetime win in a new lifetime best of 1:53.3 for trainer Alexia Kehl with Rick Magee in the sulky.

Goody Two Socks ($12.40) got away in the pocket early from post two, then sat third to the top of the stretch and was steered into a clear path by Magee in the lane to surge past pacesetter and heavy favorite Chewy Baca (Luke Plano) and post a one length tally in the $6,000 conditioned event. He is owned by Seppo Hakamaa.

Buddy’s Hope (Nick Roland) picked up an impressive gate-to-wire win in a $5,300 conditioned event in 1:53.4 in his final local start of the season, as he was never in doubt from post six with a 1-1/2 length score for trainer Sean Lancaster and owner Jerome Bouvier. He paid $7.60 at the windows.

Pa’s Corn Squuezin (Brian Detgen) posted another big win in 1:57 in a $4,500 conditioned pace for two in a row for owner/trainer Dale Lagerquist, paying just $2.10 as the overwhelming favorite.

And the 3-year-old Aubrey’s Jesse (Nick Roland) picked up her seventh lifetime win in a $4,500 conditioned trotting event, posting a new lifetime mark of 2:00.4 for owners Caroll and Rick Huffman with trainer Joel McDanel, and she paid $3.20 as the public choice. For driver Nick Roland it completed a hat trick on the program.

The next card of live harness racing action will go to post at Running Aces on Saturday (Aug. 27) at 6 p.m. (CDT).

— Darin Gagne

Batavia Downs
The $9,500 Mares Open Pace at Batavia Downs on Wednesday night was like Groundhog Day for the winner as My Tallia Ideal once again came from off the pace to dominate at the end and score consecutive victories in the Genesee County oval’s top distaff class. Looney Dune (Ben McNeil) took a slow methodic outside route to the lead after the small but select field of mares broke from the gate for race one. She cleared before the quarter in :27.3 and from that point, the trailing field followed her in post position order until they straightened out for the half. At the head of the stretch, My Tallia Ideal (Dave McNeight III) pulled and began motoring up towards the leader followed by All Charged Up (John McDonald) and Who Says That (Drew Monti) in the outer flow. By the middle of the backstretch, My Tallia Ideal’s forward assault was complete when she cleared and tripped the three-quarter timer in 1:25. From there, the gauntlet was laid down as the daughter of Western Ideal opened up by two, then three and pulled away more to a 1:53.4 win over All Charged Up and Who Says That. It was the sixth win of the year for My Tallia Ideal ($5.90), including three out of four Batavia Downs starts, all being in the top class at the Downs. The win pushed her earnings for the year to $43,525 for owners Peter Kibler, Kenneth Owczarczak and Courtney McNeight. My Tallia Ideal is trained by Dave McNeight Jr. Four drivers owned most of the card as Todd Cummings won three races and Kevin Cummings, Jack Flanigen and Dave McNeight III each won two. Trainer Dave McNeight Jr. also sent two horses to the winner’s enclosure.