FRONT RUNNERS DOMINATE

Front runners have totally dominated the 1999 Kin Park edition of interior horse racing and a high percentage of those have been American based runners. The third weekend of the four week stand saw winners galloping away from the opposition. It all started when Gail Hochsteiner's ten year old homebred O’Kaneda with Ron Bilodeau laid just off the pace took control at the top of the stretch and cruised home.

American’s support this meet in droves and win their fair share of races. The next four races went to American connections. In the second, Earl Crofoot, who has had great success training fillies, legged up Ulli Pliefke his filly Roman Reality and watched the pair go wire to wire, defeating a field of the opposite sex. Harold Burbank’s Miss Native Knight took the third in much the same fashion with jockey Ron Bilodeau. The hardest fought race of the day was when two Quarter Horses, Patience 109 and Iwannabelikemike, went head to head from the chute to the finish line. Iwannabelikemike owned by Richard & Bonnie Rawson prevailed with a hard riding Rick Robinson. The fifth was the fourth winner for the USA as Grandview Farms’ Big Bucket marched to a 9 1/2 length win with no one in sight the whole trip. Sam Shirley went along for the ride.

The widest margin of the day was earned easily by Dan Fisher’s Serenity Cove with veteran jockey Bob Stein blowing the doors off the field by 11 1/2 lengths. The last race of the day went to a local horse and was Ron Bilodeau’s third winner. Tom Hall’s Piper’s Lass took command immediately and open a clear margin for her first career victory.

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