Katch Kanna snags Preferred

Katch Kanna battled through the final quarter and collected his second Preferred harness racing victory of the season on Wednesday at Grand River Raceway.

Starting from the second tier, driver Jean Rene Plante pushed him into the three-hole early and remained there through the quarter in :27.2 before sliding out behind Norwegian Dad (Paul Mackenzie) at the halfway mark in :56.3.

Katch Kanna launched three-wide as his cover began to fail and put his nose in front at three-quarters in 1:26.3. Former leader Power And Grace retaliated and took a length lead into the stretch, but Katch Kanna dug in at the 1/16th pole and out-finished his rival to score the victory in 1:58.

Power And Grace was second by a neck over Scene A Magician (Greg Dustin), who finished third. The winner was a mild upsetter at $20.10.

KATCH KANNA REPLAY

Katch Kanna is now 27-for-144 lifetime with earnings of $222,617. Jacques Dupont trains the eight-year-old Lucky Chucky gelding for Les Ecuries Dorleans Inc. of Sainte-Julie and Sylvain Descheneaux of Sorel-Tracy.

Grand River also hosted a duo of two-year-old contests on Wednesday. Love That Smile (Colin Kelly) took the first – a dash for filly pacers – in 2:00.4 on debut. Rene Bourassa trains and co-owns that daughter of Sportswriter with M&S Racing Stable Inc., Gilles Caouette, Marc Gelinas. My Blueberry Buck (James MacDonald) won the race for males in 1:59.3 while also making his first lifetime start. Millar Farms owns its homebred son of Thinking Out Loud and employs Nick Gallucci as the trainer.

Grand River Raceway will return on Friday, Jul. 2 with an 11-race card starting at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

For full race results, click here.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink