As Woodbine Racetrack’s winter stakes get underway, trainers are hoping to start the 2012 racing season off on the right hoof

.

And with a pair of newly-minted four-year-old mares, Torgeir Hagmann will look to capture two of three divisions of the opening leg of the Lifetime Dream Trotting Series on Thursday, January 5 at the suburban Toronto oval.

Nordic De Vie and Marys Out Cruisin will make their first starts of the year in their respective $25,000 dashes.

Nordic De Vie, who was winless and lightly-raced as a two-year-old, wrapped up her 19-race sophomore campaign with four victories, one second, four third-place finishes and $107,320 in purse earnings.

In her last start of the year, she scored by one and a half lengths in the Autumn Stakes final for owner Kjell Magne Andersen of Oslo, Norway.

“I think she was really good,” Hagmann said. “She did what Randy (driver Randy Waples) told her to do, so we were really happy with her.”

The daughter Angus Hall--Nordicdish was then given time off to let a pus pocket heal. Now that it has, Hagmann feels she should improve, but admits the first leg won’t be easy.

“I think she is up against tougher horses than she is used to,” said Hagmann, a resident of Cambridge, Ont. “She needs this race. She hasn’t raced for two and a half weeks."

In order to find the winner’s circle, they will be looking to get a particular trip.

“She is a lot better from off the pace,” the Norwegian conditioner explained. “If she can get a nice trip, she can always finish a mile very well. That’s the thing with her, she needs her trip. If you leave with her, I don’t think she is that great.”

Nordic De Vie, a horse that has taken “a while to grow up,” but is “getting better and better right now,” will leave from Post 6 in the first division (Race 3).

Stablemate Marys Out Cruisin had one win, five seconds and three third-place finishes with $44,820 in earnings as a three-year-old. She carries a 1:54.3 speed badge.

“She is a mare with a lot of speed, but she has a little bit of a tough attitude,” said the 33-year-old trainer. “If she can get it her way, she is okay. She probably has more speed than Nordic De Vie, but she has a little bit of a hard time putting four quarters together.”

After having cut the mile in her most recent start (December 22), she got beat by half a length. Hagmann was pleased with how Marys Out Cruisin raced. He feels she is getting better and hopes she is ready for the Lifetime Dream Series. But, unlike her stablemate Nordic De Vie, who is pretty handy and easy to be around, Hagmann said that Marys Out Cruisin is quite the opposite.

“She is just tough on the track sometimes,” he said. “She gets a little bit ‘grabby,’ so if we keep her quiet she will be okay.”

Andersen also co-owns the brown mare with David Goodrow Stable of Cambridge, Ont.

Marys Out Cruisin, a daughter of Here Comes Herbie--Mary Lou Hall, will start from Post 5 when the gate folds for the third and final division (Race 9).

The $35,000 second leg --- for four and five-year-old trotting mares who are non-winners of $200,000 lifetime as of midnight, October 31, 2011 --- is scheduled for Saturday, January 14. The $75,000 final of the Lifetime Dream Trotting Series is slated for Monday, January 23.

To view the harness racing entries for Thursday at Woodbine, click the following link: Thursday Entries - Woodbine Racetrack

(WEG)