The 2024 Alberta Sires Stakes season will come to a close with four divisional championship titles and $320,000 in purses on the line in Alberta's Challenge Of Champions Super Finals this Saturday, Nov. 2 at Century Mile.

The four $80,000 Super Finals begin in the evening's seventh race with Alberta's top two-year-old pacing filly Custard Dolce looking to remain undefeated in stakes action. Trainer Jamie Gray's homebred filly by Custard The Dragon out of Blue Star West will be vying for her eighth straight win and is on the cusp of the $100,000 earnings mark. Phil Giesbrecht gets the call to drive Custard Dolce for just the second time after their successful partnership in the ASHA Filly Pace back in August when setting a 1:54 divisional track record at Century Downs. Gray will drive his maiden filly, Tornado Rain, from post six.

A pair of fillies sired by Winds Of Change will look to shake things up, including trainer/driver Nathan Sobey's post seven starter Mademechangemymind (dam Imjusttaylormade), a two-time Sires Stakes winner who took on Custard Dolce in the last Alberta Stardust leg only to come up three-quarters of a length short. Blowing Inthe Wind (dam Miss Conduct) has also won a pair of Sires Stakes divisions for trainer Harold Haining and will start from post two with Kelly Hoerdt in the bike.

The two-year-old pacing colts and geldings will take their turn in the spotlight in the following eighth race featuring trainer, driver and co-owner Logan Gillis's Outlawminutbyminut, winner of the Century Casinos Pace in addition to two Sires Stakes divisions. A career winner of just over $75,000, the son of Smart Shark and At This Hour is coming off a 1:54.3 blowout victory in the last Alberta Shooting Star leg that was a new rookie gelding track record. He will leave from post seven.

The Marie Brooking-trained colt Custers Stand is riding a two-race win streak into the Super Final, including a 1:54.1 triumph in the Rocky Mountain Boys Stakes before his victorious outing in the Shooting Star. The son of Custard The Dragon out of China Art has drawn post five with driver Phil Giesbrecht looking to keep their perfect record as a duo intact.

Another contender is Momas Work Of Art from the inside post for regular reinsman Serge Masse and trainer/co-owner Shelly Arsenault. The Outrageous Art-Rocket Moma colt was a winner in the first two legs of the Sires Stakes and has missed the board just once in seven career starts when he suffered interference.

The three-year-old pacing fillies will face off in the ninth race starring Outlawguns N Roses, who is 10-for-12 on the year with nearly $250,000 earned for trainer Rod Starkewski. If driver Dave Kelly can keep her late-drifting antics in check, the Captive Audience-Gunslingin Gal could extend her current five-race win streak that began with a 1:51.3 score in the Gord & Illa Rumpel Memorial in early August. The winner of the Alberta Diamond and Alberta Princess finals will start from post six.

Outlawguns N Roses will look to take the divisional title after finishing second in the Super Final as a rookie behind rival Byby Baby Byby, who won this year's Alberta Marquis leg for the father and son team of trainer Rod Hennessy and driver Mike Hennessy. Byby Baby Byby, a daughter of Vertical Horizon out of Ba Bye Ceia Later, will start just inside of Outlawguns N Roses in their rematch.

A return to her summer form could land post four starter Over Ice in the role of spoiler as she's been knocking at the door in her stakes match-ups with the aforementioned sophomore fillies. The Custard The Dragon-Arm In Arm filly, who was the B.C. Breeders Stakes champion at two, is being campaigned in Alberta this year by trainer/driver Brandon Campbell. 

The three-year-old pacing colts and geldings will close out the Alberta Sires Stakes season in the 10th race with the Brandon Campbell-trained and reined Grey Horizon starting from post three. The Vertical Horizon-Panagler colt sports eight wins and three seconds with more than $200,000 banked through 13 starts in his sophomore season. He's won six straight stakes coming into the Super Final, including a 1:53 career-best effort in the Ralph Klein Memorial, a sweep of the Alberta Plainsman leg and the Western Canada Pacing Derby. Campbell also sends out One Hot Minute in the field from post six with Mike Hennessy catch-driving that one.

Trainer/driver Kelly Hoerdt's Rum N Custard has been in the mix all season long in the glamour boy division, with 15 top three finishes from 18 starts, earning more than $90,000. Unraced as a two-year-old, the gelded son of Custard The Dragon out of former Northlands Filly Pace champion Rummys Command will start from post four.

Alberta Marksman winner Tzilacatzin (Captive Audience-Legs Like Tina) will start from post two with Phil Giesbrecht driving the recent newcomer to the Travis Ellis stable and Alberta Maverick champion YYC On The Horizon (Vertical Horizon-Divas Dragonfly) has drawn post five with Dave Kelly catch-driving for trainer Jamie Gray.

There will also be four $15,000 consolations for each division in races three through six.

Post time for the 11-race card on Saturday is 7:30 p.m. (MDT).

To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click the following links: Century Mile - Saturday Entries // Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).

(Standardbred Canada; Photo of Grey Horizon from a previous win)