HANOVER, ON — Seven divisions of future Ontario Sires Stakes stars invade Hanover Raceway on Saturday night, along with a group of young people destined to be stars of the local equine and agricultural community.
Members of the area 4-H Horse Club will be at Hanover on Saturday night touring the backstretch and grandstand and presenting the winners of each two-year-old pacing colt Grassroots division with their trophy and blanket. The 4-H/Ontario Sires Stakes Night at the Races is the brainchild of Owen Sound horsewoman Brenda Walker, a former leader of the 4-H Horse Club, who wanted to expand the programs offered by the Horse Club and introduce its young members to the many and varied careers associated with harness racing.
“Hanover Raceway thought it was a great idea,” Walker told The Canadian Sportsman when the special event was announced this spring. “We’re putting a challenge out to all the tracks to invite their local 4-H Horse Clubs out on an OSS night and teach them about the sport.”
Saturday’s 4-H/OSS Night at the Races is actually phase two of the harness racing program, which began on May 22 when the club members visited Walker’s farm. With the assistance of husband Paul, a regular competitor in the Ontario Sires Stakes, Walker offered the young people an opportunity to see things they would not normally encounter with a riding horse, from harnesses and race bikes to leg splints and curbs.
During the Grassroots event on Saturday the members will have an opportunity to see the way all the specialized equipment is put to use and to cheer on the young pacers competing in their second Grassroots event.
Among the colts the 4-H members will be rooting for is David Holliday’s Thatsthewayitis, who will make his bid for a piece of the $15,804 purse from Post 1 in the fifth race.
In his Grassroots debut Thatsthewayitis drew an outside post and finished out of the money so Holliday is hoping for an improved result from the advantageous rail position.
“He should be all right there, he won’t have to fight for position,” says the Mount Forest resident who acquired Thatsthewayitis and his mother Roguish when the colt was just a foal. “He’s very sensible, he follows, he can go, he can do it pretty well any way.”
Holliday’s only concern for the son of Historic is that he may have a acquired a touch of a virus during the season opener at Belleville’s Quinte Raceway on July 1.
“I haven’t had him scoped or anything, but he didn’t finish very good the other night (July 6),” says Holliday, whose young sons Ryan and Ben are his right and left-hand men. “Although he’s still very green and he was first up at the half and they came home pretty good.”
The lacklustre finish came in a maiden event at Hanover, and Thatsthewayitis has more than one mile over the half-mile surface. Holliday takes all his horses to Hanover for fast training miles and schoolers, and that familiarity with the track in addition to Post 1 may be just what the doctor ordered to propel the colt to the head of the class.
In addition to Race 5, the 4-H Horse Club members and the rest of the Hanover Raceway fans will cheer on the two-year-old pacing colts in Races 1, 2, 7, 9, 10 and 11. The first Grassroots division goes behind the starting gate at 7:20 pm on Saturday.