Lord Rosberg remains unbeaten by taking Jack Diamond Futurity

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Lord Rosberg remained undefeated and somewhat untested with a convincing three-length win over Merlot in the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity at Hastings on Sunday.

He paid $3.90 as the solid favorite in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 2-year-old colts and geldings foaled in Canada.

With Richard Hamel aboard, Lord Rosberg broke alertly, dueled with Sedin through honest interior fractions of 22.23 and 45.46 seconds before he started to inch away on the stretch turn. Under confident handling, he held a half-length advantage over Sedin heading into the stretch and never looked threatened by Merlot, who made a late move to get up for second. Forestry’s Devil, last early after getting away poorly, made an early move to get into contention, but was unable to sustain his bid and finished third.

“He’s a real nice horse with a nice cruising speed,” said Hamel. “We were going pretty fast early, but he was relaxed, and I had a lot of horse the whole way.”

It was Lord Rosberg’s third straight win for trainer Pat Jarvis.

Lord Rosberg posted a final time of 1:17.20.

Hamel also guided heavily favored Finality’s Charmer ($2.90) to a desperate half-length win over Splendid Scat in the $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity for 2-year-old fillies foaled in Canada.

Finality’s Charmer dueled with Chic Bird through similar early fractions of 22.31 and 45.21 before opening up a three-length advantage at the top of the stretch. Tiring noticeably, she was barely able to hold off Splendid Scat, who came from a stalking position. First-time starter Rockport Dancer came from well back to finish third.

The top two finishers are trained by Craig MacPherson.

“That was pretty exciting and I was very pleased with how well Splendid Scat ran,” said MacPherson. “Finality’s Charmer ran hard the whole way and she was looking for the wire at the finish. At the top of the stretch I was just hoping they would run one-two, and it worked out great.”

The final time for 6 1/2 furlongs was 1:18.09.

Hamel won his fifth race on the card aboard Game Seven in the last race.