Woodbine Mohawk Park: Jones tallies in International Women's Day race

Maggie Jones steered 4-year-old trotter Veracruz to a sweeping victory in Saturday's International Women's Day race at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

A field of nine overnight trotters lined up for Saturday's all-women drivers race to celebrate International Women's Day.

Pam Forgie fired Derf Hanover out to the lead to post a 29 1/5 opening-quarter. The duo would show the way throughout but were pressed through the entire middle-half by Mister Magic and Anita Ouellette.

With the field stacking up at three-quarters in 1:28 1/5, the trotters fanned out five-wide coming off the last turn. Jones, who had taken Veracruz back to eighth early, sat fourth-over at the third marker. In the stretch, Derf Hanover was pushed hard by Forgie and showed his 11-year-old grit while trying to hold on, only surrendering the lead in the final sixteenth of the mile.

While it appeared So Not Cool and Natasha Day might have the victory in sight coming down the lane, they were overtaken by a powering Veracruz and Jones, who trotted off to a 2 1/2 length score in 1:58 2/5.

"My plan was just to float away and get a spot," said Jones post-race. "(Veracruz) was just really strong and really game and he just kept coming. He was amazing and never quit.

"(This feels) pretty amazing, I won't lie. I was pretty happy when I could see the wire and thought we were going to get there."

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Veracruz and Jones went off at odds of 4-1 ($10.20).

So Not Cool and Day held second, while Eternally Hanover (Jesse Turenne) was third and Tymal Tarot (Marie-Claude Auger) was fourth.

The field of drivers that participated in this year's International Women’s Day race is listed below.

Maggie Jones
Natasha Day
Jesse Turenne
Marie-Claude Auger
Anita Ouellette
Pam Forgie
Marielle Enberg
Anne Marie Turenne
Julie Walker

Live racing continues every Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Post time is 6:30 p.m.

--press release (Mohawk)--