For the second consecutive weekend there will be a $25,000 featured stakes final on the program at Fraser Downs, and everything points to a red-hot barn with a red-hot driver living up to expectations
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JJJ Stables will be banking on Designer Dreams (to be driven by Ed Hensley) to win her seventh career race in Saturday night’s Penny Bath Memorial for four-year-old pacing mares.
Hensley, the leading driver and trainer at Fraser Downs, is also a part-owner of Designer Dreams with JJJ Stables. Saturday’s feature has been slated as the 10th race on the card. Nine starters and seven wagering interests will be heading postward in the event.
Base Camp won the $25,000 Keith Linton Memorial for four-year-old colts and geldings last week with Jim Marino crossing the wire one length ahead of favourite Wilfred Sands (Dave Hudon).
“It was Base Camp’s sixth lifetime win but his first stakes victory,” elated owner David Woolley said before quickly acknowledged his trainer, Darren Howald.
“Darren deserves the credit for Base Camp’s performance,” Woolley said. “The horse had been sidelined for three months because of a puss pocket in his foot. Darren really worked with him.”
Heading into the weekend schedule (Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. starts; Sunday at 1:15 p.m.) Hensley is running away in the drivers standings with 79 wins, 52 seconds and 55 thirds from 341 starts.
Marino is a distant second with 47 wins. In the trainers category, Hensley has 46 wins in 158 starts with Barry Treen in the runner-up slot with 30 wins.
Click here to view the harness racing entries for the Saturday card at Fraser Downs.
(With files from Fraser Downs)