Despite drawing post 7 in Sunday evening’s (May 20) $182,500 Confederation Cup at Flamboro Downs, elimination winner Western Joe is a formidable contender, installed as the 5-2 morning line favourite.
“I think he can overcome a bad post because he likes to be raced aggressively — he wants to be involved,” trainer Chris Choate told the Hamilton Spectator.
Western Joe, who has won 7 of his 14 starts as a four-year-old, has largely tackled older company in top-level events at The Meadowlands, and defeated 2016 Confederation Cup winner Rockin Ron in February to take his seasonal mark of 1:50.
“We’re here because it is a race for just four-year-olds, and there are not many of those in the game,” Choate continued. “He accounted himself pretty well against older horses, so he deserved to get in with his own kind.”
Doug McNair, who drove the Western Ideal entire to a pillar-to-post, 1:51.3 victory in last week’s elimination, will once again drive the Anthony Ruggeri homebred.
Among the eight foes Western Joe is slated to tackle are a trio of Ron Burke trainees: 2017 Little Brown Jug winner Filibuster Hanover (post 3, Yannick Gingras, 7-2), behind whom Western Joe finished second in a $50,000 Graduate event at The Meadowlands on May 5; Eddard Hanover (post 4, Louis-Philippe Roy, 5-1); and Maroma Beach (post 8, Trevor Henry, 12-1).
In addition to the 40th Confederation Cup, which serves as the finale of a 12-race program, three Ontario Sires Stakes Gold events for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings will headline the undercard. Post time is 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
To view Sunday’s harness racing entries, click the following link: Sunday Entries – Flamboro Downs.