HANOVER, ON — Hanover Raceway continues an exciting three-week stretch of Ontario Sires Stakes racing this Wednesday, July 5 with five Grassroots divisions for the two-year-old trotting colts.

A total of 35 colts will make their provincial debut in Hanover on Wednesday, and Holland Centre residents Jayne Walker and Thomas Smith are hoping that Bagger can use his familiarity with the half-mile oval to his advantage.

“Hanover’s our closest track, so we go there to train our faster miles,” explains Walker, who handles the colt’s training while Smith does the driving. “He schooled a week ago at Hanover.”

Bagger’s introduction to Hanover Raceway began in May when he arrived home from Georgia, where Walker and Smith spent the winter months.

“We took him to Georgia with us — we were there from November first to the end of April — so he got all his lessons in the nice weather,” explains Walker. “He was very good. He was kind of busy, he liked to be interested in things around him, but we never had any trouble.”

After arriving back in Ontario the pair trucked Bagger to schooling races at Hanover Raceway, Georgian Downs and Mohawk Racetrack before entering him to qualify at Mohawk on June 17. The Yankee Paco son trotted steadily around the Mohawk oval in 2:08.4, finishing sixth behind two colts who went on to capture their Gold Eliminations at Kawartha Downs on June 29.

Bagger will start from Post 3 in the sixth race at Hanover on Wednesday and while Walker is confident the youngster has had enough experience behind the gate, she hopes he can handle some of the other distractions particular to race nights.

“Hopefully he’ll take to all the people and everything,” says Walker. “He has his own personality, but he’s pretty well mannered, just a little busy.”

Although they decided to qualify the colt over Mohawk’s seven-eighths mile oval, Walker does not expect Bagger to have any trouble navigating Hanover’s tighter corners at racing speed. The colt went through a growth spurt while he was in Georgia, but has levelled off to a nice medium size.

“He’s a very smooth gaited trotter,” says the trainer. “He’s a nicely balanced horse.

“In the winter, for a month or so, he was growing uneven so we gave him some time mostly just jogging,” she continues. “He seems better now, he’s starting to fill out.”

A $5,000 purchase at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale, Bagger caught Walker and Smith’s eye just before he went into the sales ring. The pair liked the young trotter’s conformation and a quick inspection of his pedigree revealed that his mother is a half-sister to Armbro Devona ($570,100) and Armbro Fern ($205,701).

Bagger will attempt to repay a piece of his purchase price in the third $19,384 Grassroots division on Wednesday. The novice trotting colts make their debut in Races 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 on Hanover Raceway’s mid-week program, which gets under way at 7:20 pm.

For complete entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ehnvrwe.html