Tonight’s the night that Canadian harness racing has it’s own version of The Oscars - except these awards for excellency are named after legendary Canadian driver Joe ‘O Brien, and superstar trotter San Pail should be a unanimous winner of Horse Of The Year. San Pail capped a tremendous season by vanquishing two of Europe’s top trotters in the Breeders Crown Aged Trot at Woodbine last fall and that win, combined with a third straight Maple Leaf Trot wins and other important wins such as The Nat Ray at The Meadowlands and The Allerage Trot At The Red Mile have Rod Hughes 8YO trotter poised to likely win Horse Of The Year in North America.
The Driver of The Year award is an interesting race between San Pail’s regular pilot Randy Waples, Perennial WEG circuit leader Jody Jamieson and young sensation Scott Zeron who continues to pile up wins and had important stakes wins last year that have surely improved his chances. The thinking here is that Jamieson will get the edge partly based on his dominating win in the World Driving Championships, North America Cup win steering Up The Credit to a hard-fought first-over win and a heads-up steer in the Breeders Crown 3YO filly pace guiding Monkeyonthewheel to the winners’ circle. The Trainer Of The Year race is expected to be a fairly close vote between first-time nominees and J Jeff Gillis (108 winners) and Tony O Sullivan (120 winners). Both conditioners trained their charges to more than $3.8 million in earnings in 2011.
Other expected winners: Sensational 2YO trotting filly Check Me Out is a lock for the 2YO trotting filly title. She is also considered by many to be the early favorite for the sport’s marquee event, The Hambletonian, which will be contested at The Meadowlands next August. The 3YO pacing colt award will be an interesting battle between North America Cup hero Up The Credit who was the early season leader, and Breeders Crown champion Betterthancheddar who also won the American National and Windy City pace and finished the season with a flourish. For the first time The ‘O Brien Awards will be broadcast live and the feed can be accessed here:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/
In my last blog post I wrote about a 3YO pacing filly that caught my eye both before, during and at the end of her debut. My gut feeling was that this filly could be a future star and was very interested in seeing if she could improve on the ordinary 158.0 final time from her debut (keeping in mind she closed from last in 27.0 so had no real say in how the fractions were cut). The filly, “St Lads Penny Lane” resurfaced on Thursday evening at Woodbine and drew the far outside post for her 2nd start. Let’s see how she did:
Let’s just say St Lads Penny Lane was very, VERY impressive on this night. Firstly, her 155.0 mile was the 2nd fastest of the night on the wet woodbine surface. It should also be noted that her 27.1 final quarter was by FAR the quickest of the night turned in by a race winner - next fastest was 28.4 and most victors struggled to break 29 seconds. Clearly the gooey surface slowed most horses down - but not this filly! Watch the final quarter again and you’ll notice that the driver, Dougie McNair, never moved a muscle. This is a serious racehorse folks! I am going to continue to keep a keen eye on her. I wouldn’t be shocked to see her in some of the bigger stakes this summer.
Tonight at Balmoral there is going to be a large pick 4 pool starting with a $11,660 carryover and a guaranteed $40K pool that will likely reach closer to $100K than $40K. Here is the ticket I am going to play and why Race 10- 1,2,3,7,8,9 (wide open-spreading here looking for a price) Race 11-3,4,5,6,7,8,10 (same as race 10) Race12 - Keying #4 OG’S MARIE D who won easily in this class on Jan 15 with a nice 27.4 kicker then finished off the board back 6 days later in the same class but shows a comment of “blocked” in her charts. She looks solid here and offers value @ 6/1 in the morning line. Race 13 - Keying #8 Fox Valley Boogie who comes into the race off a sharp first-over win chasing down honest fractions. From the outer post it is quite possible his driver, Eric Carlson, will be able to work out an even better trip and make a return to the winners’ circle. Again this horse offers value @ 4/1 in the morning line and has a solid chance to repeat. Here’s what my ticket looks like:
Race 10 Balmoral $1 | PK4
Race 10: 1-3,7-9
Race 11: 3-8,10
Race 12: 4
Race 13: 8
42 Bets | Total: $42
Good Luck to all those wagering and all ‘O Brien Award nominees tonight!
I have recently been added as a co-host on a pod cast that discusses and promotes all aspects of the horseracing industry. In my “Harness Happenings” segment I had the pleasure of interviewing 20-year-old Canadian driver Scott Young. I was very impressed with Scott’s professionalism and on-air presence and we generated some interesting discussion detailing what it’s like to be a young up-and-coming driver who is “living his dream”. I invite you to listen by clicking on this link.
Think you want to drive a harness horse? I always had a secret dream to sit behind one for a mile. After watching the video below, I think I may be cured. This is REALLY cool! Shot from a helmet cam it gives you a bird’s-eye view of how fast these guys move: