Rideau Carleton Raceway will kick off its 2025 harness racing season on Sunday, March 23 with the first of 71 race dates for the meet.
First post time for the 10-race card on Opening Day at the Ottawa oval will be 6:30 p.m.
Preferred pacers will headline the program with a field of eight lining up in the 10th race feature, starring 60-time career winner The Light Speed and Rideau's defending driving champion Guy Gagnon. The two-time O'Brien Award of Horsemanship winner also trains The Light Speed, a seven-year-old homebred son of Moon Beam out of Jayma, for owner Michel Nolette of Princeville, Que. A winner of 14 local Preferred races last year, The Light Speed has been handicapped with the outside post eight in his Rideau return following half a dozen starts this winter at Woodbine Mohawk Park, including a last-out runner-up finish at the start of the month.
The Light Speed will face a pair of familiar foes including sub-1:50 pacer Early Action, who will start just to his inside for Rideau's 2024 leading trainer Mandy Archer with Robert Shepherd picking up the catch-drive, and Light The Torch, who will leave from post five with regular reinsman Pascal Berube aboard for trainer Marc-Andre Simoneau. Both pacers were top contenders in the Preferred class last year at Rideau and will be making their season debuts on Sunday.
Full Horse is the 8-5 morning line favourite from post four with Stephane Brosseau getting the call to drive for trainer Catherine Girard. The five-year-old Bettors Delight brother to Grand Circuit stakes winner Enavant will be making his first start in nearly nine months since winning a Preferred event at the five-eighths-mile oval by a neck over The Light Speed in a career-best 1:50.4 last June.
Rounding out the field are Persistant Boy, Stonebridge Hermes, Sports Activator and Rjs Superfreak.
Live harness racing will take place every Sunday with post time at 6:30 p.m. through the end of the meet on Dec. 14. Racing on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. will be added in mid-April and continue until mid-November, with the exception of a race date on Thursday, Nov. 27 at 4 p.m. To view Rideau Carleton Raceway's complete 2025 race date schedule, click here.
To view Sunday's harness racing entries, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Rideau Carleton Raceway.
(Standardbred Canada)