HANOVER, ON — Saturday night’s Grassroots event at Hanover Raceway will mark the provincial debut of both two-year-old pacing filly Family Feud and her 20 year old trainer Justin Robson.
“This is the first baby he’s ever trained by himself,” says Robson’s great uncle, Randy Rier. “So we’re hoping Family Feud does well on Saturday night for Justin’s sake.”
The Hanover resident and his brother John Rier, who hails from Kitchener, share ownership on Family Feud with Robson. When a mare the young trainer claimed did not work out, John Rier offered to let Robson use a breeding to Bo Knows Jate in exchange for a share in the resulting foal and Randy Rier worked alongside the Chesley resident as he broke and trained Family Feud last winter.
Robson qualified Family Feud at Hanover on June 23 and raced her twice over the half-mile oval in preparation for Saturday’s Grassroots test. The filly finished fourth in a July 4 outing, pacing her own mile in 2:02.3, and fifth after suffering interference on July 14. She and driver Jim McClure will start from Post 2 in the tenth race on Saturday, the last of five $21,277 Grassroots divisions.
“She has good speed,” says Randy Rier of the daughter of Bo Knows Jate and One Per Family. “Probably if I was to say anything, she needs a little more education, she’s a little green. She spent more time looking around than the other mare did.”
The other mare is Nika, Family Feud’s training partner and the sixth foal out of John and Randy Rier’s mare Mary Lyn Herbert. Nika will make her Grassroots debut from Post 1 in the sixth race and heads into the contest off a 2:02 win at Hanover on July 14.
“Nika raced exceptionally well Saturday night. We were quite happy with her,” says Randy Rier. “She’s very smart, very talented. The way Jim McClure described her is, �This mare has a heart of gold.'”
Rier says several of Nika’s siblings looked like they might be Ontario Sires Stakes contenders, but ran into a variety of problems that curtailed their pursuit of provincial glory, so the brothers are looking forward to the Bo Knows Jate daughter’s Grassroots debut.
“So far this mare doesn’t have those minor problems,” explains Rier. “And we brought her along slow, because we wanted to be sure we made it.”
The Rier’s and Robson will test their patient approach on Saturday, along with the connections of 36 other freshman pacing fillies. The novice pacers will compete for a total of $107,000 in Races 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 on the Hanover Raceway card, which gets under way at 7:25 pm.
For complete entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ehnvrsa.html