by Karen Briggs, WEG Media
Toronto, ON — Eight Breeders Crown events, showcasing North America’s upper echelon of 2- and 3-year-old trotters and pacers, will be the highlight of the fall harness racing meet at Woodbine Racetrack.
This is the first time the Woodbine Entertainment Group has hosted the juvenile Breeders Crown tilts since 2006.
Eliminations for the four events for freshmen will take place at the Rexdale oval on Friday, October 16, while eliminations for the sophomores will go postward the following evening, October 17. The following Saturday night, October 24, Woodbine will host the lucrative finals, each worth an estimated $500,000-$600,000.
Among the superstars expected to appear are 2009 Pepsi North America Cup and Little Brown Jug champion Well Said and Hambletonian and Kentucky Futurity winner Muscle Hill. Both will be defending their 2008 Breeders Crown championships achieved at two.
Sportswriter, who has emerged as one of the top 2-year-old pacers on the continent, is being pointed towards the Breeders Crown as well.
Local trainer Casie Coleman has captured two previous Breeders Crown trophies, with Moving Pictures in 2007 and A and G’sconfusion in 2008, but if her star pupil performs as expected on October 24 she will gain her first Breeders Crown victory in the colt division.
This will be the final occasion on which the Breeders Crown events for 2- and 3-year-olds will be hosted separately from those for older horses. All 12 races will be hosted together at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Pennsylvania in 2010, and will return to Woodbine in 2011.
Superstar quarterback Warren Moon, who will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in November, will be our celebrity drawmaster for the Breeders Crown.
On November 14, Woodbine presents another stellar evening of stakes action. The top point earners among the 2- and 3-year-olds who have been competing in the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold program will vie for year-end bragging rights in the OSS Super Finals, eight contests, each worth an estimated C$300,000.
November wraps up, and December begins, with several Ontario Sired Autumn Series stakes for 2- and 3-year-olds, followed on Saturday, December 12, by the first leg of the Valedictory Series for sophomore pacing colts. The Valedictory and the Niagara Series, for sophomore filly pacers, which launches on December 14, will take us through to the New Year.
Please join us for top-flight harness racing action throughout the fall at Woodbine Racetrack.