After dominating his foes in the West, Alberta’s Horse of the Year is eyeing up the Ontario competition with his anticipated provincial debut coming up

this weekend.

Four-year-old Brandons Cowboy-Allamerican Viking gelding Silver Eagle was shipped to Ontario in mid-December after a lucrative sophomore year to join Alberta native Travis Umphrey’s stable for longtime partners Joe Tinelli and the Shir Win Racing Stable’s Mark German, Debra Greig and Rodney Reid.

Silver Eagle, who was purchased privately from British Columbia conditioner Jim Burke near the end of a short freshman season, put together a three-year-old record reading 14-6-3 in 29 starts while earning over $200,000 with Bill Tainsh Jr. driving for trainer Lance Ward. The multiple stakes winner with a mark of 1:52.4 ended the year as the Western Canada Pacing Derby champion at Northlands Park and was named Alberta’s Horse of the Year.

“Really what it came down to is economics,” said Tinelli of the decision to ship his pacer east. “The state of racing in Alberta is not that great right now. The Open race out here is only going for $8,500 a week so we thought that it didn’t really make a lot of business sense to keep him here in Alberta with no stakes to go for except one small one in the fall. We just felt it was probably a little more lucrative for him to race in eastern Canada.”

Silver Eagle qualified twice in mid-April at Mohawk Racetrack in 1:57.3 and 1:55, respectively. Although the qualifiers weren’t exactly to Tinelli’s liking, he remains optimistic that his pacer can improve.

“I wasn’t overly pleased with his first one obviously,” said the resident of St. Albert, Alberta. “I didn’t feel that he put a decent effort in. The second one I felt that he looked better and we’re obviously hoping for more improvement once he starts racing.”

Silver Eagle will get started on Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in the seventh race conditioned-claimer for four-year-olds with Scott Zeron in the sulky, but will have to overcome an assigned outside post position 10.

“It’s not a great place to start off a five month layoff,” noted Tinelli. “That’s not favourable, that’s for sure.”

Silver Eagle, though, is known for his off the pace tactics and has a proven strength for the long stretch drives of the bigger tracks having earned the majority of his wins over Alberta Downs’ one-mile oval in Lacombe.

Tinelli and his partners have had success in the past on the Ontario racing scene as cohorts with $600,000-plus earner A Ps Money Maker. The now seven-year-old Cardmaster-Mint Kondition mare was nearly perfect in the Alberta Sires Stakes program before becoming a competitive Open mare on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit and earning a nomination for an O’Brien Award in 2010. A Ps Money Maker set a 1:49.1 track record at Mohawk and her biggest payday came when she placed in the $372,000 Milton Stakes just three-quarters of a length behind Canada’s 2010 Horse of the Year Dreamfair Eternal.

Silver Eagle’s ownership group isn’t eyeing stakes competition with the gelding right now, but are hoping he can be competitive in overnight racing action.

“We didn’t plan on putting him in any stakes,” said the longtime standardbred owner, who purchased his first yearling 13 years ago. “We’re kind of taking a wait and see approach to see how he adjusts to a different racing style out there and we appreciate the calibre of racing is much better than it is in Alberta so we basically just need to find a spot for him where he’s going to be competitive and hopefully we can make a few dollars."

To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Saturday Entries - Woodbine Racetrack.