Scicluna dominates closing card at Running Aces

Columbus, MN – Running Aces closed out it’s 2020 harness racing season with a nine race program on Sunday (October 4). Driver Chris Scicluna picked up four wins on the day, including three out of the four top featured events of the day.

Scicluna drove Natalie Zabrzenski’s pacing mare Free Radical ($2.40) to a romping 5 length victory in the $13,500 Minnesota-Sired Consolation in 1:56.1 to complete three in a row for the 6 year old daughter of Hot Pans.

Two races later, Scicluna steered his own star pacer Hoo Nien A ($5.00) to a 1-3/4 length score in the $9,500 horses and geldings Open Handicap pace in 1:53.3 to complete a fantastic Running Aces campaign for the 9 year old gelded son of Always A Virgin.

In the very next race, Scicluna’s top pacing mare My Kiwi Lady N ($4.80) was driven to victory by Jacob Cutting in the $9,500 mares Open Handicap pace to complete a stellar summer campaign for the 7 year old daughter of Art Major.

The very next race, Scicluna was back in the sulky and steered Cruisin For You ($44.40) to an upset win as the longest shot on the board in a $6,000 claiming pace for owner/trainer Ariel Alvarez.

Final tally on the day for Scicluna was three driving wins and two wins as owner/trainer.

Drivers Nick Roland and Braxten Boyd each registered doubles on the program and trainer George Reider also had two winners on the closing day card.

Nick Roland picked up the hardware as the 2020 Leading Driver for his fourth local driving title, and Jessica Johnson was awarded as the 2020 Leading Trainer for her first such title.

The mandatory payout Pick-5 wager picked up over $39,000 in new action to add to the $20,435 in carryover money. Twelve lucky players were able to solve the closing day Pick-5 puzzle to split the money. Each 20 cent ticket returned $4,211.72.