The six-year-old San Pellegrino gelding had some questions surrounding him entering Saturday’s contest after making a rare break in stride in an Open event at Mohawk on June 29. He then finished second in a qualifier behind Define The World on the morning of July 9 at Mohawk.

This week, however, the old San Pail was back and marched to the lead for driver Randy Waples after parking through much of the :27 second opening quarter. Once on top, Waples was able to settle the speed and took the field past the half in a controlled :55.4.

At that point, European invader Reven Damour (Fredrik Larsson), who had been parked all the way, made a three-wide move around a stalled Arch Madness (Trond Smedshammer) and prompted San Pail through three panels in 1:25.

Waples called on San Pail for more as they turned for home and he responded with a strong :27.3 final quarter. Lanson (Mario Baillargeon), who was locked in until mid stretch, found room late and rallied sharply for second with Reven Damour holding on extremely gamely for third.

Rounding out the top seven positions and advancing to next weekend’s final were Define The World (Paul MacDonell), Triumphant Caviar (Luc Ouellette), All Cantab (Trevor Ritchie) and Slave Dream (Sylvain Flion). Arch Madness, along with Striking Lindsey and Wind Surfer, failed to qualify.

“He’s back, he proved that tonight,” said winning trainer and co-owner Rod Hughes. “Dad had to work hard on him all week. We crossed our fingers and here we are.”

“I liked that when I saw Randy get a bit of a breather and they were stacked up on the outside with no one coming real hard at him Randy said he was strong right to the wire and he said to just keep doing what I’m doing. This week will be fairly easy for him. I just have to make sure I do my job and have him as good as I can.”

San Pail returned $4.60 as the bettor’s choice and improved his record to seven wins in nine trips postward this year while increasing his career earnings to just over $1.2 million for Hughes along with co-owner Glenn Van Camp of Port Perry, ON.

By virtue of the win, San Pail’s connections got to choose their post for the final and opted to go with post four. The top seven finishers from Saturday’s elimination will join Lucky Jim, Enough Talk and Armbro Chronicle in the $772,000 final.

Here is a look at the entire field in post position order:

1. Enough Talk
2. All Cantab
3. Lucky Jim
4. San Pail
5. Slave Dream
6. Reven Damour
7. Armbro Chronicle
8. Lanson
9. Triumphant Caviar
10. Define The World