Columbus, MN —  There are 101 horses carded across 12 divisions for the upcoming Day of Champions program on Saturday (Oct. 3) at Running Aces, and among all of those hopefuls, there are three contenders that will be trying to achieve a rare feat — three have a chance to pick up their third straight championship crown.

The aforementioned trio are all mares.

Twilight Tinker (shown here in a 2019 win) is favored to win her third straight championship race on Saturday. Dee Leftwich photo.

Twilight Tinker is the early 2-1 favorite in the $45,000 older trotting mares division. The daughter of Braggart is now four, and won as a freshman in 2018 and as a sophomore in 2019, and has had a very good 4-year-old campaign with five wins from 13 outings so far, and a career mark of 1:57.2 taken this August. She has a total of 11 career wins and $69,969 to her credit for owner Cathy Dessert and trainer Jessica Johnson. Driver Nick Roland will be at the controls in Saturday’s fourth race where she will start from post three.

Al-mar Reba Babe is a close second choice (5-2) in the same division as Twilight Tinker, and starts from post one with regular driver Gerald Longo. She is an 8-year-old daughter of SOS Lunar Eclipse and is owned and trained by Richard Davis. Al-mar Reba Babe won the older mares division in both 2018 and 2019. She has won 16 races and $155,225 to date.

Windmeupnwatchmego is the 2-1 favorite in the $45,000 older pacing mares championship and will start from post three with regular driver Dean Magee for owner/breeder Richard Davelaar and trainer Gordon Graham. The now 4-year-old is a daughter of Wind Me Up. She won her division’s championship race as a freshman in 2018 and again as a sophomore in 2019. She has won 15 races and $122,923 to date, taking a 1:53.3 career mark at Running Aces in 2019.

The Day of Champions card is packed with some very good races, with no shortage of possible standouts — including Rush To The Bank (Nick Roland 2-1) from post one in the $45,000 freshman male trot (race two); Twilight Sunset (Rick Magee, 6-5) from post seven in the $45,000 freshman male pace in race six; It’s Pacific Time (Rick Magee, 6-5) from post three in the $45,000 sophomore filly pace in race eight; and It’s A Marcs World (Nick Roland, 6-5) in the $45,000 sophomore male pace (race nine).

Both the $45,000 older horses and geldings trot division (race 10) and the $45,000 older mares pacing division (race 11) appear to be very wide-open contests.

There are 12 races on the card, with purses totaling $540,000.

Post time for the Day of Champions program is 1 p.m. (CDT) and features a carryover pool for the 20-cent Pick-5 Jackpot wager of $18,673.66.