Gotcha Covered sweeps Valedictory at Woodbine

Gotcha Covered survived a tough trip and trying track conditions to complete a sweep of this year’s Valedictory Pacing Series during the Boxing Day (Saturday) program at Woodbine Racetrack.

 

Paul MacDonell guided the three-year-old gelded son of Western Ideal-Day Dreams who rallied from fifth in the opening half to wear down Blackbird Singing and driver Jack Moiseyev in the final strides of the 1:55.1 mile over a track rated sloppy due to steady overnight rains in Toronto.

 

Onemorelastchance finished a lapped-on third with Sombrero Blue Chip rounding out the top four. Gotcha Covered won by just half a length as the prohibitive favourite and returned a popular $3.20 for the win.

 

It was the fourth consecutive victory for Gotcha Covered, who recently returned to the racetrack after successful throat surgery. The lion’s share of the $60,000 purse bumped his seasonal earnings to just over $81,000 for trainer Randy Van Meer and owners Harry Locke and Dan
Sarafian of Ontario. The connections purchased the pacer privately this past summer and will
now aim him towards the Willowdale Pacing Series which begins on January 9 and then the Cam Fella Series in mid March. (Woodbine)