Harness racing is ready to return in Alberta as the circuit shifts south to Century Downs for the first card of the 2023 season this Saturday (March 11).

The Calgary, Alta. racetrack will host 10 races on Saturday with a pair of Preferreds featured as Race 5 and Race 8. Post time is 1:15 p.m.

The $13,500 fifth race pins Alberta’s 2022 Champion Aged Horse and the hot horse of the recently wrapped Century Mile meet, Shark Week, against five other foes. Owned by Lorne Duffield and trainer Rod Hennessy, the five-year-old son of Vertical Horizon earned more than $100,000 last year and won a dozen races, including a 1:51.1 track record-equalling performance at Century Downs. 

Mike Hennessy will steer Shark Week, the 8-5 morning-line favourite, from post five and just to the inside of Gerry Hudon trainee Samba Beat, who pulled a mild upset when winning the top class on the final night of the Century Mile meet on Feb. 4. The field also includes Fraser Downs invaders Tiempo Hanover from post two and Armycaptin Hanover from post one.

Some of Western Canada’s top females will compete later in the card in the $10,500 Fillies and Mares Preferred 2 Handicap Pace. Betcha Baby will make her 2023 debut as the 9-5 morning-line favourite for Century Downs’s 2022 leading driver Brandon Campbell, who also conditions the seven-year-old Bettors Delight mare. She will race from post six alongside stablemate Cheese Whiz, who has knocked on the door in her last three starts including a second-place finish in the top class at Century Mile on Jan. 28.

Racing at Century Downs runs on a Saturday-only schedule through April before moving to a Friday-Saturday rotation in May. The 2023 meet runs from March 11 through Friday, Aug. 18.

To view Saturday’s harness racing entries, click the following links: Saturday Entries – Century Downs // Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).