Ultimate Destiny out dueled Pender Harbour to capture Sunday’s $125,000 Bunty Lawless Stakes, at Woodbine.
Owned and trained by Alec Fehr, the chestnut son of Dance to Destiny arrived at the 1 1/6-mile off-the-turf stake from a narrow neck defeat to Phil’s Dream in the Overskate Stakes.
Ultimate Destiny, expertly piloted by Eurico Rosa da Silva, moved into contention through the final turn but needed the length of the stretch to overtake Pender Harbour, who had led through pressured splits of :23.75, :47.12 and 1:11.35, to win by a neck.
San Nicola Thunder rallied late to earn the show money. Ultimate Destiny stopped the clock in 1:43.03.
Da Silva was pleased with the effort put forth by Ultimate Destiny to secure his fourth win from seven starts this meet.
“We were very lucky to be outside of this horse (Pender Harbour),” said da Silva. “Today he had a great trip and tried very hard.”
Fehr gave kudos to Pender Harbour, a two-time winner of the Bunty Lawless Stakes, for staying on strong after soaking up early pressure from Renegade Man and Lip Singer.
“I have a lot of respect for that horse. It’s amazing what he did today,” said Fehr. “He (Pender Harbour) went out early and battled other horses to get to the lead and then he was opening up and I was worried about him. I thought we had him at the sixteenth-pole but he just kept on fighting.”
Ultimate Destiny, bred in Ontario by Minshall Farms, banked $75,000 in victory while improving his record to 6-8-1 from 21 career starts.
He returned $6.30, $3.70 and $3.10, pairing with Pender Harbour ($3.70, $3.10) for a $17.50 (10-2) exactor. A 10-2-8 (San Nicola Thunder, $5.90 to show) triactor was worth $200. Renegade Man completed a $1 Superfecta (10-2-8-3) worth $336.65. Welloiledmachine was scratched.
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