King Of The North captures $640,000 Wellwood Memorial

King Of The North highlighted Saturday’s North America Cup harness racing undercard with a victory in the $640,000 William Wellwood Memorial at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

He dropped back and tucked in sixth among the two-year-old trotters while several of his foes battled for command through :28.3 and :57.2 opening panels. Mark MacDonald tipped the Walner colt into a golden second-over position at the midway point, and the outside flow advanced on leader Temporal Hanover (Tim Tetrick) in a third quarter that was finished in 1:25.3.

The first-over Duly Resolved (Paul Macdonell) struck the front first, but King Of The North drifted and dashed to the finish, pulling past his rival to win by a length in 1:54.2. Duly Resolved, who finished second, was two and a half lengths clear of Letsdoit S (Dexter Dunn).

“He got bearing out on me a little again. We had taken the head pole off and he was still bearing out a little bit, we’ll have to address that,” Macdonald said post-race. “But go wise, he had tons of go and I was really happy with the way he trotted. Last week he raced well, […] we tweaked him a little bit and changed his shoes tonight and I thought he trotted a little cleaner. He was just kind of on that line again, so we just have to tweak him a little bit more and try and get him really good for the Mohawk Million, we’re pretty excited to be into that.”

KING OF THE NORTH REPLAY

King Of The North booked a trip to the Mohawk Million, a stake for two-year-old trotters, with the win. The William Wellwood Memorial is the only race to grant access to the Mohawk Million; the nine other spots were purchased for $100,000 each. The horse was undefeated in five starts at the Meadowlands — including the New Jersey Sire Stakes and Peter Haughton finals — before shipping to Mohawk Park for the Wellwood and finishing second in his elimination. Ray Schnittker trains him for Schnittker Ward of Middletown, Arden Homestead Stable of Delhi (NY), Nolamura Racing LLC of Goshen, and Steven Arnold of Purchase. The $190,000 Lexington Select Sale purchase is now six-for-seven lifetime and has raked in $601,890 in earnings.

For full race results, click here.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink