Stakes action is set to ramp up this Friday, April 18 at Woodbine Mohawk Park for the opening leg of the Canadian Sired Graduate Series.

Canadian-sired four-year-olds will square off in the Canadian Graduate, which consists of two preliminary legs and an added money final.

This week’s opening leg will feature $25,000 divisions in the open trot and mare pace categories. The open pace division did not fill and will now skip to leg two on Saturday, April 26.

The winners of last year’s Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals for sophomore trotters are set to make their season debuts in Friday’s first leg of the Canadian Graduate for trotters.

Two-time O'Brien Award winner Willys Home Run (Post 1, James MacDonald) headlines the sixth race opening division for trainer Kyle Fellows. Owned by Dr. Sara Gatchell and Jake Higgs of Strathroy, Ont., breeder Reg Higgs of Blenheim, Ont. and Yolanda Fellows of Rockwood, Ont, Willys Home Run sports a career summary of 10-7-1 in 23 appearances with a mark of 1:53 and more than $955,000 in earnings. The daughter of Archangel has qualified twice in preparation for her four-year-old pari-mutuel debut, with a sharp 1:57.1 score in her first charted mile of 2025 at Mohawk on April 4.

Her rivals include Masstercraft (Post 2, TBA), Myretirementdream (Post 3, Scott Young), Willowtime (Post 4, Louis-Philippe Roy), Sid The Kid (Post 5, Doug McNair) and Captain Wania (Post 6, Trevor Henry).

The second division, scheduled as Race 10, features O'Brien Award finalist Paquet (Post 3, Jody Jamieson), who captured the OSS Super Final by more than four lengths last October as part of a three-year-old season in which he posted four wins and earned more than $344,000 in eight starts. The Carl Jamieson trainee tuned up for his season debut with a pair of qualifiers at Mohawk.

The field of six is completed by Grambling Hall (Post 1, Tyler Borth), R Peaky Blinders (Post 2, Louis-Philippe Roy), Hungry Hill (Posy 4, J.R. Plante), What About Elmo (Post 5, Tyler Jones) and Mrstery Deal (Post 6, Todd Ratchford).

The Canadian Graduate for pacing mares will have a field of five facing off in Friday’s second race. All five starters have earned between $158,000 and $218,000 in their racing careers.

Coco Jo Jo (Post 5, James MacDonald) is entering off a fourth-place finish in the Fillies & Mares Preferred on April 4. The Tony Beaton trainee is one-for-three this season and has multiple top three finishes in Grand Circuit events.

Sorcha Seelster (Post 4, Bob McClure) has also raced in the Mares Preferred this season. The John Pentland student most recently finished third in an overnight event last Friday at Mohawk. The daughter of All Bets Off made more than $147,000 last season.

The highest earner in the field is Collusion Hanover (Post 2, Tyler Jones) at $218,089. The Luc Blais trainee made the Breeders Crown final to cap off her 2024 season and was beat just less than two lengths in her season debut last Friday.

The field also includes One More Bet (Post 1, J.R. Plante) for trainer Jean Tourigny and Resilience (PP3, Louis-Philippe Roy) for trainer Eric Nadeau.

Following this week’s first leg, the Canadian Graduate Series continues with the second leg for the open trotters and pacing mares on April 25 and the open open on April 26.

Friday evening’s card also includes a $36,000 Fillies & Mares Pace and Ontario Sired Spring Series action.

Post time on Friday is 6:35 p.m.

To view Friday's harness racing entries, click the following link: Friday Entries - Woodbine Mohawk Park.

(Woodbine & Standardbred Canada)