Brittany Kennedy Leads Winzel to Victory

Brittany Kennedy has been around harness racing her whole life and today she filed another notch in her racing career as she scored her first win as a driver.

Photo courtesy of Captured Moments Photography

Kennedy was at the controls of WINZEL and took advantage of a text book two-hole trip behind favourite STONEBRIDGE SCORE and Tyler Borth before popping out down the stretch for the win.

“It feels pretty amazing and it feels even better to win with WINZEL, he’s pretty special to me.” Kennedy said about her first win.

WINZEL has been part of the Kennedy family since he was a three-year-old in 2008, trained by her father Todd Kennedy until Brittany took over the conditioning in 2014.

“It’s not just special to win with WINZEL it’s also special to win here at Dresden Raceway, my dad used to live in a trailer where the entrance is to the back stretch so this track is important to our family history too.”

Kennedy who is a Registered Massage Therapist drove with the patience of a veteran driver as she sat second on the pylons in fractions of 30.2, 1:00, 1:30.2 and rolled to the outside to step off a last quarter of 29.4 for the win in 2:00.3.

“The only thing that would have made today a little more special would have been to have my uncle Rick here to celebrate, he drove horses and so did my grandfather Jack Duck.” Kennedy added.

Kennedy is partners with Jack and Nancy Holmes and does the training for the 13-year-old Royal Strength gelding.

Donnie Rankin was on fire again today as he guided GD CRUISE FOR GOLD to his fourth straight win and also drove ON THE TAKE to his fifth win in six starts. Rankin is the owner trainer and driver for GD CRUISE FOR GOLD and ON THE TAKE.

Today’s handle at Dresden Raceway was $26,265 which puts the track up almost $30,000 over last year’s total handle.