Sportswriter Wins North America Cup
June 26, 2010
For a video of the 2010 North America Cup, Click the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0sJKkRkO0U
Sportswriter and driver Mark MacDonald won the C$1.5 million North America Cup in a time of 1:48.3 on Saturday night at Mohawk. We Will See (Brett Miller) was the runner-up as he slipped up the rail and took it to Sportswriter late in the stretch with Piece Of The Rock (Paul MacDonell) finishing third.
Kyle Major (Jody Jamieson) gunned to the lead from Post 9 with Sportswriter and Mark MacDonald driving up and clearing past the :26.2 opening quarter. The son of Artsplace-Precious Beauty raced past the half in :53.4 before Rock N Roll Heaven (John Campbell) applied first over pressure.
Sportswriter turned back that rival as he hit three-quarters in 1:20.4 – the fastest third quarter clocking in the Cup’s history – opening up two lengths on the field and charged home to win in a career-best 1:48.3.
Sportswriter, who finished third in his 1:48.4 elimination last week, is owned by Steve Calhoun of Chatham, the West Wins Stable of Cambridge, ON and Southwind Farm of Pennington, New Jersey.
Last year’s Metro Pace champion overcame quarters cracks, which he endured early this season to earn his first win in four 2010 starts and boost his earnings to $770,000. The bay colt, who has won eight of his 12 career starts and has never finished worse than fourth, surpassed the million-dollar mark in earnings and now sports a bankroll of $1,645,411.
With the win earlier in the $666,000 Fan Hanover, Coleman and MacDonald are the first trainer-driver combination in harness racing to capture both the Fan Hanover and the Pepsi North America Cup. |
|
