from Standardbred Canada

Mississauga, ON — Although the 2009 Dan Patch Award, O’Brien Award and Metro Pace winner Sportswriter qualified last week in 1:56, the Artsplace colt did not go in the speed range in which trainer Casie Coleman was looking for. Under ideal conditions on Thursday, May 20, at Mohawk Racetrack with driver Mark MacDonald in the racebike, the colt dropped a significant amount of time in victory.

Sportswriter contested the eighth dash of the nine-race Mohawk qualifying session. The world record holder started from post six and was on top by five lengths at the :28 opening quarter pole. Getting another :28 quarter into his mount, MacDonald had Sportswriter at the opening half in :56, a full 10 lengths up on his closest foe.

The lead was 15 lengths by the time MacDonald got his charge to the three-quarters in 1:23.3. Completing a :55.4 back half, MacDonald and Sportswriter hit the wire 15 lengths the best in 1:51.4.

A winner of seven of eight races in 2009 and $815,680 in purses, Sportswriter has been installed as the 3-1 favorite in Trot Magazine’s 2010 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.

Also on Thursday morning, top older pacer Dali turned in an identical 1:51.4 effort as he tunes up for some of the sport’s biggest events for older pacers.

Video, complete with full reaction, is now available at the WEG website by clicking here.

— WEG’s Greg Blanchard also contributed to this report