by Frank Salive, for Western Fair Raceway

London, ON — It’s the final order of business from Western Fair Raceway’s overwhelmingly successful fundraiser on January 29, which brought a life saving defibrillator to the track in support of the Chase McEachern Tribute Fund of the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

That evening in London, Randy Waples marked his return to active driving duty after a six month recovery from the injuries he suffered in a racing accident at Mohawk last summer. In addition to dozens of horsepeople, members of the public and staff donating that night, Waples also contributed a custom driving suit which is now available for bidding through an Ebay auction site at www.quikdropbarrie.com The suit, and the progress of the bidding, can be accessed by going into the designated “Chase Fund Raiser” down the left column. The proceeds will go to the Chase McEachern Fund of the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

“There is quite a story behind that driving suit and whoever gets it should know about this story behind it,” Waples explained in his trackside interview in January. “The suit is a real custom item because I was at first prohibited from wearing it by an ORC presiding judge,” he says. “The custom ‘flames’ design of the gold and blue color scheme was at first deemed to be a little too colorful, unusual, or unique I guess. However I was eventually allowed to wear it and did win some races in it. I’ll also be most happy to autograph it for the successful bidder in support of this great cause, too. Especially for people in harness racing, I hope the driving suit will be a really unique collector’s item.”

“Randy has always been among the most generous guys in Ontario harness racing,” says John McEachern, an ORC investigator based in Barrie and the father of Chase. “Since Chase’s passing we’ve had his initiative for defibrillators at public venues gain unanimous and widespread support. Just last Thursday the Ontario government allocated a further $3 million for defibrillators.”

The Randy Waples custom driving suit fundraiser auction on the Ebay site www.quikdropbarrie.com will end at precisely 6:00 p.m. (Ontario time) on Friday, April 6.

Rankin returns to work – slowly

Driver Donnie Rankin, Jr. reports he’s finally able to return to the barn but still faces several months of recovery from the injuries he suffered in a racing accident at Western Fair on February 19.

“I can’t do any work yet and walking is still quite an effort, but at least I’m up and around. People tell me my voice is a lot stronger than it was right after the accident, but coughing still causes me extreme pain. I’m probably looking at towards fall before I’ll be able to drive again,” Rankin says.

In the five horse mishap Rankin took the brunt of the impact from three trailing horses and suffered 14 fractured ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung, a broken sternum, a concussion and deep bruising to the internal organs. Though he resides near Windsor he’s returning to London for follow-up testing. Last week he received word that a suspected tear to his liver from the accident would not be a further cause for concern.

Ex-NHL goalie in racing? Dam Straight

When 4-year-old pacer Dam Straight turns to the starting gate in London on Monday evening in the fourth race a most interested observer will be former St. Louis Blues NHL goalie Rick Heinz.

Rick co-owns the lightly raced son of Straight Path-Workin Girl, co-owned and bred by his brother Nick Heinz of Essex, ON. Dam Straight has been established as a 5-2 morning line favorite. Greg Durand is the trainer and Ray McLean, Jr. has been hired to drive.

During his tenure with the Blues from 1980-85, the clippings file from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch frequently described Rick’s play as ‘acrobatic’ and ‘entertaining.’ He also toiled for several years in the minors with the Salt Lake City Eagles in Utah.

Now a resident of Campbellville, ON, the avid Standardbred owner and fan operates a successful chain of goalie and hockey schools from a base of operations in Brantford, ON.

Great career start

Though it’s a pace he can’t sustain his entire career, victories in four of his first five career starts have been racked up by 18 year old Jim Robblee of Woodstock, ON.

He’s won both starts with 4-year-old pacing mare Minniewin and two out of three starts with 3-year-old filly Fulla Camotion.

Jim is the son of Darlene and Mike Robblee. Mike is a career hobby horseman and his top charge, $282,000 winning trotter Loose Change Louie, is being readied to return soon for his 6-year-old season.

Molson Pace countdown

All of a sudden it’s just eight weeks to Western Fair Raceway’s signature annual event, the C$250,000 (est.) Molson Pace. Eliminations will be held on May 25 and the final on June 1.

The Molson Pace watch got a whole lot more interesting late in March when Stormaway scored a last-to-first victory in a Western Fair Preferred Pace for an C$18,400 purse. Stormaway was an OSS Gold Series multiple champion in 2006 and is on the nomination list of 42 of the continent’s top Free For All performers, which includes the 2006 winner and runner-up, Our Lucky Killean, and Dr No.

On April 2, Albert In The City is the only 2007 Molson Pace eligible that will be competing on the London program.

Super spring surge

When spring suddenly arrived for the March 26th program with a temperature of 23C (73F) at Western Fair, the London track recorded it’s first program of 2007 with all 12 races decided in under 2:00.

The Preferred-2 Pace produced the night’s top mile at 1:55 flat by Moodie Goose, for the combination of driver Brad Forward and trainer Paul MacKenzie for the Merks Stable of New York.

Post time Monday note

Monday post time at Western Fair moves to 4:05 p.m. as of April 9th.

Through June 29, the Tuesday afternoon post time of 4:05 p.m. and the Friday evening start time of 7:35 p.m. remain unchanged.