SARNIA, ON — Hiawatha Horse Park celebrates the first weekend of summer with a sizzling menu of stakes races on Saturday night. The Sarnia oval hosts seven Grassroots divisions for the three-year-old pacing fillies, worth almost $110,000, and the $61,600 Clearwater Cup Final starring nine of Ontario’s top three-year-old pacing colts.
The sophomore pacing fillies kick off the exciting stakes action in Race 1 and will also warm up the crowd in Races 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10, leading up to the featured Clearwater Cup in Race 12. Hoping to play a major role in four of the Grassroots divisions is local horseman Jim Ainsworth, who has four fillies aiming for a piece of the Ontario Sires Stakes pie.
Ainsworth will make his first tour of the Sarnia five-eighths behind Kylie Bears Bunny in the first race and is hoping the Precious Bunny daughter can earn a piece of the $15,704 purse in her provincial debut. Owned by Country Creek Stables Inc. of Woodslee and Ronald Beattie of Windsor, Kylie Bears Bunny will start from Post 4 in the first race.
The three-time Johnston Cup winning trainer will be aboard one of the favourites in Race 3. Former Gold Series competitor Maddy Girl has drawn Post 5 for her second Grassroots start and Ainsworth is confident that her result will be better than the fifth she managed from Post 7 at Dresden Raceway in the season opener.
“I expect she’ll be heard from. I might try leaving with her a little and get into the race earlier,” says the Sarnia resident, who notes that traffic was part of the filly’s trouble in Dresden. “She raced good in the Trillium, she finished third beat a nose for second, and she paced in 1:55 her last start at Sarnia.”
Ainsworth shares ownership on the Run The Table daughter with his wife Shelley and Martwest Racing Stable of Mississauga.
Heading into the fifth race off a 1:54.1 victory at Hiawatha on June 13, Armbro Wand will also be one of the favourites in spite of Post 8 and Ainsworth says fans can expect a repeat of her most recent outing.
“I’ll probably race her the same way, get as far in front as I can and let them play catch up,” he explains. “I know how much she can go out here. She likes Sarnia, she likes the big turns.”
The Armbro Operative daughter, owned by Ainsworth’s father Larry of Petrolia, Martwest Racing Stable and Reg Gassien of Lindsay, struggled in the Grassroots season opener and in the June 7 Trillium event at Elmira Raceway because of the tighter turns on the half-mile racetrack.
The final entry from the Ainsworth barn is Machthree Times, who is also making her Ontario Sires Stakes debut. The Camluck filly brings an impressive record of three wins in four starts to the table in Race 8 and will match wits with her more experienced peers from Post 8.
“She is another mare that is getting better with every start,” says Ainsworth. “She came up sick a few weeks ago and finished fifth that night. She missed some time so I thought she’d be short in her last start (June 15), but she was strong right to the wire so I expect her to improve by maybe a second or two this week.”
Larry Ainsworth and Martwest Racing Stable share ownership on the homebred filly, who could almost double her $8,370 earnings with a win on Saturday night.
The evening wraps up with the Clearwater Cup Final and elimination winners Silver D Moon, the reigning Gold Final champion, and Firstline Luck will be battling it out from Posts 3 and 4 in an attempt to lower the 1:51.2 track record set by Quality Cam in last year’s edition.
Hiawatha Horse Park raises the curtain on this exceptional night of harness racing at 7:10 pm. The three-year-old pacing fillies will compete for Grassroots glory in Races 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10 and the sophomore pacing colts will take centre stage in Race 12.