Grand Circuit mare takes $36,000 Preferred-Handicap

Silver Label (Bettors Delight), returning home to Woodbine Mohawk Park after two Grand Circuit top-three finishes, beat strong harness racing distaffs in the $36,000 Fillies and Mares Preferred-Handicap on Saturday (Jul. 27).

Doug McNair found the mare the four-hole going into the first turn and rode the pylons as Tells On A Roll (Travis Cullen) showed the way through :26.4 and :56.1 splits. Silver Label kicked off a first-over march just past the midway point and fired past horses to pull alongside the leader on the final turn.

Silver Label and Tells On A Roll traded blows coming down the stretch with neither backing down as they battled level into the final eighth of a mile. Silver Label edged away from the former leader in deep-stretch, but her stablemate Prohibition Legal (Louis-Philippe Roy) then burst onto the scene from the pocket. She surged late, but Silver Label dug deep and made it home with her head in front in 1:51.

Prohibition Legal was a narrow second with a half-length separating her and the game Tells On A Roll in third.

SILVER LABEL REPLAY

Silver Label was coming off a two-race trip to The Meadowlands in which she finished third in the Perfect Sting and second by a half-length in the Dorothy Haughton Memorial. The Millar Farms homebred has now won 23 of 49 lifetime starts and has earned $1,503,833 under the stewardship of trainer Nick Gallucci. She is a two-time O’Brien Award winner and former Ontario Sires Stakes champion.

After a narrow defeat last out, Jabberwocky (Hes Watching) rallied from the backfield to upset at 13-1 in a five-across finish in the co-featured $36,000 Preferred Pace.

The gelding traveled seventh and stayed in as the outside flow formed with the field turning for home. He advanced at the cones for Trevor Henry and was full of pace behind a wall of horses in mid-stretch, desperate for room. He found an opening on the inside in the last eighth of a mile, lunged to the pylons, and flew up to steal the victory on the line in 1:49.1. Whichwaytothebeach (Sylvain Filion) on the far outside was a nose short in second. Stockade Seelster (Roy) took third in the photo.

JABBERWOCKY REPLAY

The victory was Jabberwocky’s first at the top overnight level in 81 career starts. The gelding has racked up 13 wins and $297,840 in earnings. Rick Zeron trains and co-owns the five-year-old through his Rick Zeron Stables with James Walker of Port Perry, John Donato of Oakville, and Earn It To Burn It Stable of King City.

Roy and Henry both won three races on the evening.

Racing resumes at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Monday, Jul. 29 at 7:10 p.m. EDT.

For complete race results, click here.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink