Live harness racing returns to Hiawatha Horse Park in Sarnia, Ont. this Saturday, May 4 with 10 races for its 2024 season opener.
Racing will take place on Saturdays with post time at 6:30 p.m. for the duration of the meet, which runs through Sept. 21. The season's highlights will include Ontario Sires Stakes with multiple Grassroots and Prospect Series legs scheduled at the five-eighths-mile oval.
Hiawatha's defending driving champion Garrett Rooney has a full slate of drives on Saturday, including 2-1 morning line favourite Legal Bettor with the inside draw for the Cassidy Schneider stable in the featured $5,000 conditioned-claiming pace, set to go as the evening's second race. Last season, Rooney drove 44 winners, almost double that of his nearest rival, to top the Hiawatha driver standings.
Jason Libby, the track's 2023 leading trainer with 13 victories, will send out a trio of starters to kick off the new meet, including maiden sophomore pacing filly Gourmet Cook in the opener, four-year-old pacing mare Rose Ricky in the fifth race and seven-year-old distaffer Atalanta Express, a recent $11,875 claim from Western Fair Raceway and his best chance for a victory based off the morning line, in the first trotting dash of the night in race six. Dan Clements is listed to drive all three Libby trainees.
Hiawatha will offer its "loonie and toonie night" promotion on the first Saturday of each month with programs and pop for $1 each and hotdogs for $2.
Programs and live streaming of the races are available online via the track's website at hiawathahorsepark.ca.
To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click one of the following links: Hiawatha Horse Park: Saturday Entries // PDF Program Pages // TrackIT Program Pages.
(Standardbred Canada)