Ageless Atlanta Takes Second Armbro Flight Final
Atlanta and Yannick Gingras converted a perfect pocket trip to capture tonight’s $211,000 Armbro Flight final for older trotting mares at Mohawk, part of the exciting undercard on Pepsi North America Cup night.
There were three mares battling for the top position early with Herculisa winning the battle and trotting by the opening marker in :26.4 with Atlanta right behind her. They remained stacked that way by the :56 half and the longshot remained on top by the 1:22.1 third panel. Atlanta came out to challenge halfway down the stretch and held on to win in 1:52.2.
When Dovescry, last year’s Armbro Flight winner, was second with Bella Bellini taking third.
Trained by Ron Burke, and owned by Brad Grant of Ontario, Crawford Farms of New York and Howard Taylor of Pa., Atlanta was notching her second win in four tries this year. The seven-year-old daughter of Chapter Seven now has 33 lifetime wins in over $3.4. million banked.
“She’s incredible, as she gets older, you appreciate her even more. She’s so game and does her job week in and week out. She deserves the big ones. Ron Burke does a tremendous job bringing horses back year after year after year. I can’t praise him enough,” said Gingras.
“You can do whatever you want with her, you can leave or go back to last. She hasn’t been as good as perhaps in years past, I wanted to spot her and hope for the best from there. We got a good trip, it worked out perfect tonight,” he added.
Atlanta has competed in the last four Armbro Flights winning back in her first appearance in 2019, also with Yannick at the controls. That time of 1:50.2 was a Canadian and stakes record.
The event is named in honour of one of the greatest trotting mares bred in Canada. Armbro Flight, inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1976, was Canada’s Horse of the year for three straight years in the mid-1960s. Her legacy still lives on in trotting families across North America.
Woodbine Communications, Heather MacKay Roberts
