The connections of Easy Lover Hanover are feeling pretty good, seeing as though their Somebeachsomewhere gelding has turned some heads during his current five-race win streak on the WEG circuit. The connections are hoping that the next few weeks will be as fruitful, as the three-year-old will be supplemented to the $285,000 (est.) Hap Hansen Progress Pace.
Easy Lover Hanover first made a bit of news this past January, as he was one of the horses that owner Brad Grant bought at the January Select Mixed Sale at the Meadowlands Racetrack. The three-year-old was brought in to help restock the stable of trainer Ben Wallace, whose operation had been wiped out by the tragic barn fire at the Classy Lane Training Centre in Puslinch, Ont.
Grant paid $70,000 to bring Easy Lover Hanover into Wallace’s care. As of November 15, Easy Lover Hanover has banked $190,672 for Grant. The bay has won 14 of the 27 races he has started under Wallace’s tutelage. He is currently riding a five-race win streak, which has been punctuated by a couple of particularly strong starts over Mohawk Racetrack and Woodbine Racetrack in the conditioned ranks.
“We will be supplementing him tomorrow (Wednesday),” Wallace told Trot Insider. The veteran trainer went on to say that a trip to Dover Downs for the ‘Progress’ had been a talking point as of late, but that Easy Lover Hanover’s strong showings in recent weeks made it a simple decision.
“We had been mulling it over (supplementing) for the past couple of weeks,” Wallace said. “It was kind of Brad’s idea to begin with. We kind of said to ourselves that if he was good Saturday (November 12, a 1:51.3 win at Woodbine) that he deserved the opportunity to good down (to the Progress at Dover) and hopefully make a good showing of himself.”
“It was his 14th win of the year and he’s beat some good, aged horses the past couple of weeks. We both thought that he was fantastic,” said Wallace. “Doug McNair will be driving him. The first thing that Doug said last Saturday when he got off the bike was ‘you don’t know how easy that was.’”
Although it was Saturday’s win that led to the decision to supplement, Wallace also points to Easy Lover Hanover’s victory at Mohawk on November 5 as a bit of an eye opener.
“He was maybe even better the week before when he won in (1:) 50.2,” Wallace said about the November 5 performance. “He came from well off the pace and just drew off. The colt deserves the chance to head down there (the Progress Pace) and make a good showing of himself.”
Regardless of the outcome in the Progress Pace – eliminations Monday, Nov. 21, final Monday, Nov. 28 – Wallace said that he will be pointing Easy Lover Hanover to some of the bigger Canadian stakes in 2017 – the Prix D’Ete and the Confederation Cup.