Bobcat misses Derby cut

Leading X Ample ($4.70, $2.80, $2.50) was a wire-to-wire winner in the first of three C$55,000 Canadian Pacing Derby eliminations Saturday evening at Woodbine, and $85,000 supplement Primetime Bobcat failed to qualify, finishing last in the second elim, which was won by Mypanmar in 1:48.3. The third elim went to Hop Sing, who scored by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:48.4.

Leading X Ample, a 4-year-old son of The Panderosa, stopped the clock in 1:51 in the first elim, just a five-horse field, for driver David Miller.

The career winner of 13 races and $855,833 in purses left from the rail and cut out the fractions of :27.2, :56.3 and 1:24.2, respectively, before coming home with a :26.3 final quarter to notch the one-length victory over Maltese Artist ($7.10, $3.20) and driver Brian Sears, who bottomed the $14.20 exactor.

Buckeye One ($2.30) and driver Dan Clements finished third, beaten two lengths, completing the $28.30 triactor. Escape The Wind and trainer/driver Roger Mayotte finished fourth.

"Right off the gate, nobody was trying him, so I let him pace out a little bit and he pretty much got it his own way from there," said Miller, who was piloting the bay for trainer Bill Elliott and the Leading X Ample Stable of Port Perry, Ont. "Three quarters in [1]:24.2 is pretty much a walk in the park for him."

Mypanmar won by three-quarters of a length over Lis Mara in the second elim, a seven-horse field. Virgil Morgan trains the 5-year-old stallion by The Panderosa for the Peter Pan Stables.

Hop Sing picked up his eighth victory of the season in 17 starts with his elim score. Ponder finished second while Boulder Creek took third.

The C$933,000 Canadian Pacing Derby will be raced June 24 at Mohawk. Elimination winners will be able to pick their post position for the final, and one fourth-place finisher, drawn by lot, will also gain entrance.

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