Midnight Passion stealsthe show in Gold final

The 40th meeting of the season, made up of eight all-trotting races, was held in front of a packed house at the Marsa Racetrack yesterday.

Five of the events on the card were Condition Race finals from the Cassar Petroleum championships on a short distance of 2,140m.

Ten horses lined up in the Gold Class final.

Charm Hammering (Carmelo Farrugia) made the fastest start with Premier Avril (Herman McKay) and Nacarat Campbell (Rodney Gatt) not far behind.

Then, with 500m to go, favourite Midnight Passion (Eric Bezzina) dashed strongly from the outside and in the straight for home the Swedish horse stormed ahead before cruising to its third consecutive win and fifth in Malta.

Charm Hammering had to settle for second place while Skars Hanna (Jeffrey Said) and Prince Gaillard (Charles Camilleri) completed the top-four order. Midnight Passion clocked an excellent average time of 1.14.5” per kilometre.

There were two Silver Class finals yesterday.

A keen tussle between three horses developed in the Silver A race where favourite Prince Lu (Shawn Portelli) notched its second win in a row ahead of Zandina Boshoeve (Rodney Gatt) and Matador Knick (Carmelo Farrugia).

In Silver B, Pile Ou Face (Joe Schembri) surrendered its lead to Magnific As (David Ellul) midway through the final straight.

Victory was Magnific As’s third this year at Marsa.

Loustic d’Anjou (Julian Farrugia) won the Conditional Race Bronze final and the Copper Class title went to favourite Royal Qui (Ivan Bilocca).

Darren Marmara, on behalf of the sponsors, presented the owners and drivers of the winning horses with commemorative plaques.

Also yesterday, Noel Baldacchino was awarded with the best driver of the month trophy.

During September, he took part in 22 races, won five of them and placed in six others.

Another meeting at the racetrack will be held on Friday evening.

The winners
Race 1. Copper – Kiton de Bouere (Marius Mizzi) – 1.19.3”
Race 2. Silver – Ostheo d’Havetot (Andrew Farrugia) – 1.18”
Race 3. Copper – Royal Qui (Ivan Bilocca) – 1.18.1”
Race 4. Bronze – Loustic d’Anjou (Julian Farrugia) – 1.16.6”
Race 5. Silver B – Magnific As (David Ellul) – 1.15.8”
Race 6. Silver A – Prince Lu (Shawn Portelli) – 1.15.1”
Race 7. Gold – Midnight Passion (Eric Bezzina) – 1.14.5”
Race 8. Silver – Qurieux Du Ponchet (Noel Baldacchino) – 1.17”