LOS ALAMITOS : Prince Brian Wins Shelly Goudreau Final

Prince Brian is the king of the North American pacers.

The 3-year-old colt won the $250,000 Shelly Goudreau Memorial Pace on Saturday night at Los Alamitos, going the mile in 1:52, the fastest of any 3-year-old pacer this year and the second-fastest mile in Los Alamitos history.

Sent off as the 1-5 favorite, Prince Brian took the lead five-eights of a mile from home and maintained a lead throughout, holding off the late challenge of Falcon Dakota, who closed well in the stretch for second.

“He was a little tired (at the end),” said Prince Brian’s driver, Joe Pavia Jr. “This was the first time I had to hit him. I didn’t want to do it, but he responded well. He was pushed so hard at the half.”

Prince Brian paid $2.40, $2.20 and $2.40 and earned $125,000 for owner Nick Barbieri of Woodbridge, Ontario, who purchased the colt for $100,000 earlier this year at Pompano Park in Florida. Falcon Dakota paid $5.40 and $5.60 with driver Joe Anderson, and Humstinger, a 202-1 shot, finished seven lengths behind Falcon Dakota and returned $29.20.

Prince Brian lowered the 3-year-old track record twice before the Goudreau final. In the first leg of the series, on April 11, he was timed in 1:53 and in the second leg on April 18, he was clocked in 1:52 4/5, the fastest time by a 3-year-old in North America this year.

Prince Brian will return to Ontario and his East Coast-based trainer Rheal Bourgeois and face some of the nation’s leading 3-year-old pacers at Mohawk Raceway. He is being pointed toward the $1-million North America Pace at Greenwood, near Toronto, on June 20.

Renewed for the first time in eight years, the Goudreau was held from 1981 through 1984 at Los Alamitos as the Los Alamitos Spring Championship for the first two years. The race was renamed in 1983 for one of California’s leading drivers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, who died in a racing accident at Hollywood Park in 1982.