Pilgrims Taj Crowned a winner

Pilgrims Taj rallied off second-over cover and swept past the dueling leaders in late stretch to capture the $617,880 Breeders Crown Two-Year-Old Trot Saturday night at Woodbine Racetrack.

Magic Fruit (Steve Condren) blasted to the lead from Post 7 flashing a :28.1 first quarter, but he was overtaken as a parked out Temple Of Doom (Dave Miller) rolled to the top. After a :57.4 half, elimination winner Lucky Chucky (John Campbell) launched his challenge from fifth and became the new leader before the 1:26.3 third quarter.

From there, Magic Fruit moved back out providing the other elim winner Pilgrims Taj
and Mike Lachance, who sat sixth through the early panels, with cover around the final turn. Magic Fruit locked in a duel with leader Lucky Chucky down the lane, but Pilgrims Taj was full of pace and swept up on the outside for the 1:57.1 victory.

Lucky Chucky battled back for second over Magic Fruit.

"Unbelievable, a dream come true,” gushed longtime owner Robert Bongiorno, who won his first Crown tonight with his first starter. “I groomed horses for nothing for years, trained them for many years, and now I'm here. It's a great thrill.

"The bias was against us with the wind in the stretch, but he overcame it. Mike has done a great job driving him, Monte Gelrod did a great job training him up until coming to Canada and now Keith [Armer] has also done a great job.”

Pilgrims Taj now sports seven wins and three seconds on his record in 10 starts this year with $746,939 earned. Peter Heffering of Port Perry, Ont., Bix L Di Meo of Red Bank and Val Dor Farms of Millstone, New Jersey also share ownership of the Broadway Hall-BWT Maija colt. (WEG)

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