If there’s a chink in the armour of the Gregg McNair-trained Warrawee Koine, the competition can’t find it.
The three-year-old daughter of Astreos rolled to her third consecutive victory in as many starts in Monday’s lone division in the second leg of the Silver Reign Pacing Series at Woodbine Racetrack.
Warrawee Koine, a homebred owned by Dr. Mike Wilson of Rockwood, ON, stepped to a career-best clocking of 1:53 earlier this evening over the Rexdale, ON oval. Mike Saftic mapped out the winning trip with the precocious pacer, who will shoot for the Silver Reign Series sweep next Monday evening.
Saftic plugged Warrawee Koine into the two-hole behind Lil Miss Nyalation, who left hard from Post 10 and sped the field to the quarter pole in :27.1. Those two swapped spots at the half-mile marker, which flashed up in :56.1.
Warrawee Koine marched past the three-quarter pole in 1:25.1, and she tacked on a :27.4 final frame en route to the sharp clocking of 1:53. It was more than two lengths back to runner-up Mylittlerebel. Run To Vegas rounded out the top three.
Sent off as the 1-2 choice, Warrawee Koine bumped her bankroll to $28,500 with the win.
“We watched the race on a rather slow internet connection which made life interesting,” said owner/breeder Mike Wilson, who is currently in New Zealand. “When this filly was in the Forest City Sale she cut herself in the stall and nobody bid on her, so my wife and I decided to buy her back. Her mother [My Gal Hall] is a sister to Cammibest (1:50 – $1,071,775), so we thought that she was worth the chance.”
“The year that ‘Koine’ was born we named all the foals with names beginning with ‘K’,” Wilson added. “We picked the Greek name because she was an Astreos. The word is an ancient Greek word for one of their dialects and it made me think of my friend Chris Christoforou.”
The $45,800 final of the Silver Reign Pacing Series goes next Monday evening at Woodbine Racetrack.
(courtesy Standardbred Canada)