Atlanta is now officially set to make her first start since defeating the boys in the $1 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Aug. 4.

The Rick Zeron-trained and Scott Zeron-driven Chapter Seven filly has drawn post 3 for the $136,000 Casual Breeze Stakes, which has been carded as race seven on Woodbine Mohawk Park’s program of live racing for this Friday (Aug. 24).

On Hambo Day, Atlanta, a winner of 10 of her 17 career races and six of seven this year, showed the industry that she’s the real deal, as she thrilled the crowd at the Meadowlands with her 1:50.4 second-heat victory in harness racing’s most storied event.

“She came out of the Hambletonian really good,” Rick Zeron said Monday evening ahead of the Casual Breeze draw. “She dove right into her feed box the night we brought her back home from The Meadowlands. She’s Atlanta, she just does her own thing, and we just jogged her up for a week and gave her a little down time.”

Atlanta's first ever stakes win came over the Woodbine Mohawk Park oval last August, when she captured a division of the Champlain Stakes. Her trainer was high on her even then.

“I always saw something in her as a two-year-old,” recalled her trainer. “Courtney Hanover was always better than (Atlanta) was, but as the year progressed Atlanta stepped over Courtney.

“When she won the Champlain she was really good, and then we sent her over to Vernon Downs and she won in 1:54 out of the eight-hole, mile in front, and that’s when I said, ‘She’s got it now, she understands what she has to do.’”

The career winner of $838,000 is set to face off against another top-tier filly on Friday, as the Jimmy Takter-trained and Yannick Gingras-driven Manchego will start from post 8 in the ten-horse Casual Breeze.

Manchego, the Hambletonian Oaks-winning daughter of Muscle Hill, raced last Friday in her Zweig Memorial division at Vernon Downs, where she just lost by a nose to Mets Hall in 1:52. The bay is a winner of 17 of her 20 career races that went undefeated in her 12 juvenile starts last year.

$136,000 Casual Breeze Stakes
Woodbine Mohawk Park
Friday, August 24
Race 7 (9:10 p.m.)
Post – Horse – Listed Driver
1 – Sorceress Seelster – Scott Wray
2 – Illusioneesta – Chris Christoforou
3 – Atlanta – Scott Zeron
4 – Apprentice M – Paul MacDonell
5 – Magical Lady – Paul MacDonell
6 – Smoke And Mirrors – Trevor Henry
7 – Blonde Magic – Sylvain Filion
8 – Manchego – Yannick Gingras
9 – Ex Hanover – Bob McClure
10 – Sneeker Hanover – Jody Jamieson

(with quotes from Woodbine Mohawk Park)