Castle Flight good for another feature

Darin gColumbus, MN – The featured event on the Tuesday night (July 27) harness racing program at Running Aces was the $12,000 Open Handicap Pace, which drew a field of seven.

Castle Flight (Nick Roland) was a sharp winner in last week’s edition and was sent off as the 9-5 favorite to repeat, with Stuckey Dote (Jacob Cutting) sent off as the clear second choice in the contest.

Castle Flight was fastest from the gate and won an early battle with Elusive Image (

Mooney Svendsen) who dropped into the pocket, while Swagasaurusrex (Brady Jenson) got away in third. Hoo Nien A (Gerald Longo) launched a first-over bid through the middle stages with Parklane Jet (Dean Magee) following the cover.

The outer flow failed to make an impression on the leaders as Castle Flight ($

5.60) continued to pace strong on the lead, and was able to hold off pocket-sitter Elusive Image for a three-quarter of a length tally in 1:54 to make it back-to-back feature race wins for the 9 year-old son of Panspacificflight, owned by Bill Dessert and also trained by Roland. Swagasaurusrex completed the trifecta in third.

CASTLE FLIGHT REPLAY

There were two divisions of the Minnesota-sired freshman trot and Scroll on By (Tony Kerwood) pulled a major upset in the $15,000 “A” division, getting a nose up on the wire over stablemate Vickie’s Vacation (Nick Roland) in a 2:02.4 mile for her first career win. Poko Loki (Luke Plano) was also very sharp, and was beaten just a head in third.

The top two finishers are both fillies by Banker Volo, and the winner is owned by Kennedy Roland. The top two are also both trained by Dan Roland. The win mutuel for Scroll On By was $93.00 and the Roland-trained exacta paid $302.00.

The $10,000 “B” division went to Calico Creek (Luke Plano, $18.20) who scored her first career win in her debut outing with a half-length victory in 2:03.1 over Need More Cowbell (Dan Roland) and Luna Love So Good (Nick Roland).

The winning filly is by Southwind Flash and is owned and trained by Jenni King.

Luke Plano led the Tuesday program with 3 driving wins, while Dean Magee posted a double.

Live Racing returns to Running Aces on Thursday evening (July 29) with first post at 6:05 pm (CDT).

For full race results, click here.

By Darin Gagne, for Running Aces