enriksen-trained Charlie Is A Joker toted a five-race winning streak into his Friday evening assignment at Woodbine Racetrack, and the photogenic gelding had no problem getting the job done again.

With Sylvain Filion calling the shots, Charlie Is A Joker got away fifth from post nine while M Douglas and Pursuit Of Dream battled to the quarter pole in a :28-second before the latter cleared to the top. Chinese Cuisine brushed to the top shortly past the mid-way point in :57.4, but that one was quickly overtaken by Lively going into the last turn. Charlie Is A Joker, who was track Lively’s cover in the backstretch, took on that foe on the way to the three-quarter pole.

There wasn’t much separating the two of them past that marker in 1:26.2, but Charlie Is A Joker began to edge away in the lane. He used a :29-second closing panel to win by three-quarters of a length over M Douglas in a career-best clocking of 1:55.4. Lively weakened late and wound up finishing third.

Sent off at odds of 3-1, the three-year-old son of Angus Hall-Keystone Caprice improved his lifetime record to 9-1-1 from 11 tries for owners Tom and Elizabeth Rankin of St. Catherines, ON. The also bred the career winner of $44,307.