Hanover Raceway kicked off its 60th season of harness racing on Saturday, June 1 with a 10-race card dominated by driver J Harris.

Harris started the meet at Hanover on the right foot, winning the first race of the day aboard Century Havana ($9.60) with a first-over grinding victory by three parts of a length over pacesetter Watch My Honeydrip (Ryan Desroche) in 1:59.2.

After winning just one race on the front half of the card, Harris dominated the back half. He watched as Jimmy Whispers ($4.20) won the first Prospect Series dash for three-year-old pacing colts with a wire-to-wire win in 1:58.3 for driver Jason Ryan, trainer Mike Kwietniowski and breeder-owner Adelina Leonardis of Maple, Ont. in the second race. He then returned to visit track photographer Tiffany Fortney in the second Prospect Series division, carded as the sixth race, with Moonwalker ($3.60; pictured above) in 1:58.4 for trainer-owner Patrick Dillon of Port Hope and co-owner Patti Hoskin.

Harris heated up from there, connecting for a natural hat trick in the last three dashes on the card. He won the eighth race with Rose Run Vortex (1:59.4; $2.30), the ninth courtesy Delightful Magic (1:59; $3.40) and the finale aboard Rambaran Rose (1:59.3; $4.40).

The 2024 season at Hanover has started off very differently for Harris, who posted just three wins at the track in all of 2023. Last year, he posted a 3-2-5 summary in 21 starts over the Hanover oval. After just one card, his 2024 summary stands at 5-0-0 in eight starts with cheques in all eight attempts.

With the Saturday five-bagger, Harris boosted his seasonal totals to 65-61-46 in 489 starts. Career-wise, the Guelph, Ont. resident boasts 2,294 victories with more than $14.6 million in purse earnings.

For the 2024 meet, Hanover Raceway will host a total of 15 Saturday race dates running through Sept. 14, with the exception of Aug. 10. Post time will be 1:30 p.m. for all programs except for the 2024 Dream Of Glory program on Aug. 3 with first post at 5:30 p.m. 

To view the results from Saturday's card, click the following link: Saturday Results - Hanover Raceway.

(Standardbred Canada)