Hastings: St Liams Halo comfortable winner of Lieutenant Governors’

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Favored St Liams Halo, under a confident ride from Mario Gutierrez, never looked threatened winning the $50,000 Lieutenant Governors’ at Hastings on Friday.

St Liams Halo broke sharply and looked comfortable sitting just off Spaghetti Mouse, who set moderate fractions of 24.10 and 47.77 seconds in the 1 1/16-mile feature for 3-year-olds and up. Under mild urging from Gutierrez, St Liams Halo took over the lead just past the quarter pole and opened up a clear lead heading into the stretch. He held off Crew Leader, who made a late move to get up for second. Almost Time came from off the pace to finish third. The final time for the three-turn race was a brisk 1:43.10.

According to Gutierrez, the one-length margin of victory was a bit deceiving.

“He did it pretty easily,” said Gutierrez. “I thought there would be a lot more pace and when nobody went with Spaghetti Mouse I just let him drag me up there. I asked him a little bit around the turn but that was about it. I had a lot of horse the whole way. He’s a nice one.”

St Liams Halo is trained by Troy Taylor, who said he would be pointed to the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs on Aug. 21.

* In the co-featured 1 1/16-mile Chris Loseth for 3-year-olds, heavily favored Inhisglory scored an impressive 2 1/4- length victory over Jump Up and Kissme. He paid $3.90.

Trained by Craig MacPherson, Inhisglory was stretching out to a middle distance for the first time and he posted a respectable time of 1:44.52. He was ridden by Richard Hamel. With his strong performance Inhisglory established himself as the early local favorite for the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 11.