Woodbine Mohawk Park is set to begin its inaugural full year of live racing with a 10-race card set for this Saturday (Jan. 5).

The 2019 live racing season at Woodbine Mohawk Park will feature 221 race dates and is headlined by the 36th Pepsi North America Cup on June 15 and the Breeders Crown on Oct. 25 and 26. The Milton, Ont. oval, which opened in April 1963, became the permanent home of Woodbine Standardbred racing in April 2018.

The first card of 2019 features a $34,000 Preferred Pace (race nine) and $30,000 Mares Preferred Pace (race three).

Easy Lover Hanover finished 2018 as the hottest horse at Mohawk Park, winning five in a row to close out the year. The Ben Wallace-trained six-year-old gelding collected four of his five straight wins at the Preferred level to finish the season with nine wins and $228,940 earned in 27 starts.

Woodbine’s leading owner Brad Grant owns Easy Lover Hanover. Jody Jamieson will drive the 2-1 morning-line choice from post 5 in a field of eight.

As for the ladies, Kendall Seelster finished her three-year-old season in style by winning the final two editions of the $30,000 Mares Preferred against older rivals. The Rod Boyd trainee officially joins the aged ranks this Saturday and is the 2-1 morning-line choice in a field of nine for the Mares Preferred.

Owned by 1187422 Ontario Inc., Kendall Seelster posted nine wins and earned $283,465 in 23 starts last season. The Ontario Sires Stakes graduate enters her four-year-old season with 13 wins and $737,450 in career earnings.

Sylvain Filion will sit behind Kendall Seelster in Saturday’s co-main event.

Woodbine’s leading trainer Richard Moreau will look to immediately reclaim the top spot in the trainer standings by sending out 13 starters on Saturday’s 10-race card. Moreau sends out a pair of starters in each of the Preferred contests, with Double A Mint and Sandbetweenurtoes in the mares event and geldings Phantom Seelster and Isitfridayyet competing in the $34,000 Preferred.

Moreau’s barn posted 208 wins and earned $3.7 million in 2018.

Louis-Philippe Roy led all Woodbine drivers in 2018 with 288 wins and $5.5 million in earnings. The O’Brien Award finalist for Canada’s Driver of the Year has been taking time off during the holidays and will not be competing on Saturday’s first card of the year.

Live racing takes place every Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The racing calendar increases to five nights a week at the start of June with Tuesday evenings added until the start of October. Post time is 7:10 p.m.

For more information and the full racing calendar, visit www.WoodbineMohawkPark.com.

To view Saturday's entries and program pages (courtesy TrackIT), click the following links: Entries | Program Pages.

(Woodbine)