Trainer David Menary is hoping Saturday night’s Mid-Summer Challenge at Mohawk Racetrack marks a change in fortunes for his sophomore pacers.

Last season, pacing fillies OK Feisty and Macharoundtheclock and pacing colt Windsong Jack earned a combined $510,000, racing primarily in the Ontario Sires Stakes program. Through the first half of 2013 though, the trio has barely managed to eke out $100,000.

“They really need to turn the corner,” said Menary emphatically. “I really hope the three-year-olds turn the corner.”

OK Feisty and Macharoundtheclock will compete in the $150,000 pacing filly Challenge on Saturday, starting from posts two and five. Guelph resident James MacDonald will be aboard OK Feisty in her 13th start, while Moffat resident Jody Jamieson steers Macharoundtheclock in her fifth outing.

“OK Feisty had a long season last year and she started early this year, so she’s maybe a little tired,” noted Menary, who shares ownership of the Modern Art daughter with Kenneth Ewen of Georgetown, Denis Breton of Welland and breeder Oak Knoll Stables of Campbellcroft.

While she trailed her stablemates in earnings last season, OK Feisty boasts the biggest bankroll of the three to date with $41,673, much of it earned in May when she finished second in a leg of the Gold Series season opener at The Raceway at Western Fair District, fourth in the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association Stake Final and third in the Princess Series Final, both at Mohawk Racetrack.

While OK Feisty kicked off her sophomore season in March, Macharoundtheclock did not make her 2013 debut until June. Through her first three starts she scored a fifth, a second and a victory, but in the Canadian Breeders Championship Final at Mohawk on July 20 the Mach Three daughter faded to sixth in the stretch and came up sick following the race.

“In her last start she went to the three-quarters in 1:22 as easy as a horse can go in 1:22, and then she hit a brick wall,” said Menary. “After the race her scope looked like a science experiment.”

The filly has not raced since, but Menary said she trained well in preparation for Saturday’s outing and the Cheltenham resident is expecting a big mile from the youngster.

“I’ve been high on Macharoundtheclock her whole life and I don’t think I’ve ever raced her when she was 100 per cent,” noted the trainer, who co-owns the filly with his father Larry Menary of Cheltenham, Ewen and Breton. “I hope it starts this week, but I am looking for really big things from her.”

Larry Menary, Ewen and Breton also own Windsong Jack, along with Geoffrey Lyons Mound of Burford. Like Macharoundtheclock, the Santanna Blue Chip gelding has had his struggles with sickness this season and has only earned $34,986 from two seconds and one third in five starts.

“It’s been one step forward and one step back, but if it was easy everybody would do it,” said Menary ruefully.

Guelph resident Billy Davis Jr. will steer Windsong Jack from post two in Saturday’s $150,000 pacing colt Challenge, and the gelding’s owners would love to see him find the winner’s circle for the first time this season.

Mohawk Racetrack sends its first race into the starter’s hands at 7:25 p.m. on Saturday night and fans will be treated to six Mid-Summer Challenge events for the three-year-old trotters and pacers. The $50,000 trotting filly and pacing filly Consolations go postward as races one and three, while the $150,000 Challenges for the trotting fillies, trotting colts, pacing fillies and pacing colts are slated as races two, five, six, and nine.

For complete entries, click here.

(With files from OSS)