Skip Smith

Waiting On A Woman, driven by Wally Hennessey, captured his fifth straight win in Open I competition at Pompano Park on Wednesday night

The 5-year-old, gelded son of Northern Bailey won for the eighth time in nine 2013 starts -- he suffered a did not finish line due to broken equipment in his only loss -- by holding-off Mystical Starlight, handled by Joe Pavia, Jr., by three-quarter lengths following wired fractions of :26.4, :56.3 and 1:26.1.

The Florida-bred Lugar, with Bruce Ranger, finished third, followed by My Man and I’ll Tell You What. Spring Goal and Spin Spanky Spin completed the roster.

Trainer Travis Kolaczynski admitted being a bit nervous after the quick opening quarter.

He said, “A few weeks ago, I got goose bumps from the excitement of his 1:53.2 performance. Tonight, I got goose bumps from nervousness when I saw that :26.4 opening quarter. He’s a great horse, though, and he showed his courage when it counted.”

Driver Hennessey agreed.

“That opener did take some sting out of him -- after all, he was off a week -- and he was a bit tired near the wire, but he was very game -- tired but game -- at the end. He really gets over the ground nicely. Very solid!”

Waiting On A Woman has now tallied $40,250 so far this year for the New Jennaration LLC, and $115,456 lifetime on the strength of his 29 wins in 52 career starts.

The Open II Trot went to Celebrity Legacy and driver Bruce Ranger in identical time as the Open I -- 1:54.4.

Owned by trainer Stewart Nemiro, who is recovering from a training accident a few weeks ago, Celebrity Legacy left alertly for the lead, yielded for the garden journey as She’s All In and Rick Plano carved numbers of :27.2, :57.1 and 1:25.3 and squeaked by in the final stages to score by a neck.

Surface Tension (Dan Daley), Tamarack Hanover (Stephane Lareau) and Distracting Beauty (Kevin Wallis) picked up the final three purse checks in the field of seven.

For Celebrity Legacy, a 7-year-old son of Windsong’s Legacy, it was his third win of the campaign in 11 starts, sending his yearly bounty to $19,120. He has banked $211,431, lifetime.