by Carol Hodes, for the New Jersey Sires Stakes

Matawan, NJ — Calgary Hanover, winner of the Breeders Crown at 2, will make her 2007 debut in Friday night’s (May 18) opening round of the New Jersey Sires Stakes for 3-year-old pacing fillies at the Meadowlands.

A total of 19 New Jersey-sired fillies drew into two divisions for the first of three preliminary legs that will lead to a $175,000 final on June 22.

Calgary Hanover headlines the second division, carded as the sixth race, in which 10 fillies will compete for a purse of $36,000 while a nine filly division, the first race, features Artcotic, the New Jersey Sire Stakes 2-Year-Old Filly of 2006, vying for $35,400.

Calgary Hanover, a bay daughter of Western Ideal–Campaign Leader, banked $372,635 last year with three wins, six seconds and two thirds from 12 starts. Her last start of 2006 was a quarter length victory over Little Miss Dragon in the $600,000 Breeders Crown Final at Woodbine at odds of 13-1.

“Everybody was so shocked,” said trainer Don Swick. “But if you went down through her lines, her second line back at Lexington, she paced a last quarter in :25.4. How did she win (the Breeders Crown), well, why shouldn’t she win?”

Some of what makes Calgary Hanover hard to figure is how she acts on the track.

“She’s sort of a slow starter,” said Swick. “Last year she was close, but it takes her a while to get her engine fired up. She acts like it will take her a while this year, too.

“Training her down, she was just terrible,” he recalled. “Even now I hate jogging her. It takes forever. She won’t jog fast, and she won’t train fast. She’s just one of those laid back creatures that has to get motivated. I was a little disappointed last week (in her qualifier), not so much by the time — they paced a fast last quarter in :27 — but I was disappointed that she let a horse go by. But it was on her Murphy blind side so maybe she just didn’t see it.”

Hall of Fame driver Mike Lachance fits the filly well, according to Swick, explaining that the filly needs a lot of urging to do her best.

A $27,000 Lexington Select yearling purchase, Calgary Hanover races in the name of William Peshina’s Royal Wire Products Inc. of North Royalton, Ohio, and Robert Marzoli’s United Process Control Company of Somerville, N.J.

“We’ll race her in the New Jersey Sires Stakes, the Miss New Jersey and then Tarport Hap and Mistletoe Shalee,” said Swick, who is stabled at Magical Acres in Chesterfield, N.J. “Then we’ll hold her over and get her ready for the fall meet at Lexington.”

The field for the $35,400 first division of the New Jersey Sires Stakes for 3-year-old pacing fillies, first race on Friday, May 18, at the Meadowlands (from the rail out with listed driver0: Lady Mattgalane, Ron Pierce; Weekie Wachie, Ron Pierce; Western Bonbon, Mike Lachance; Artcotic, Ron Pierce; Kisskissbangbang, Cat Manzi; Lightning D Dube, Daniel Dube; Southwind Rio, David Miller; Pick Up, Daniel Dube; and Artistic Ideal, Ron Pierce.

The field for the $36,000 second division of the New Jersey Sires Stakes for 3-year-old pacing fillies, sixth race on Friday, May 18, at the Meadowlands (from the rail out with listed driver): Current Hanover, George Brennan; Career Artist, Brian Sears; Cupcakecraze, John Campbell; Platinum Hanover, Andy Miller; Calgary Hanover, Mike Lachance; Ideal Sunrise, Andy Miller; Speed Date, Andy Miller; Striptease Hall, Brian Sears; Mr Deli’s Filly, Yannick Gingras; and Spring Break, Mike Lachance.