Fraser Downs will close out its winter/spring harness racing meet this week with Friday's season finale featuring a pair of $50,000 stakes for three-year-old pacers and the addition of an Ontario-based reinsman to the driving colony.
After Thursday's 7 p.m. program, the meet will come to a close on Friday with nine more races starting early at 6 p.m. The $50,000 Penny Bath Memorial for fillies is scheduled as the seventh race and the matching Keith Linton Memorial for colts is the ninth race.
Last year's B.C. Breeders Stakes champion Side Piece headlines the five-filly field set to compete in the Bath Memorial as the 6-5 morning line favourite for driver Brandon Campbell and trainer Jim Marino. The J J J Stables homebred Shadow Play filly, who won her season's debut on March 23 and a pair of subsequent qualifiers while taking a lifetime mark of 1:54, has drawn the inside post while her stablemate Center Piece drew outside with Scott Knight listed to drive.
The Marino stable will send out four of the nine colts in the Linton, led by 2-1 favourite Domi. Owned by J J J Stables, Marino and Paul Sanders, the Living It Up gelding has finished no worse that third in all eight of his sophomore starts, including four wins and a runner-up finish in the B.C. Bred Stakes two starts ago. He will leave from Post 2, with Campbell looking to put the finishing touches on his stellar B.C. campaign. Campbell heads into the final two programs of the meet with 83 wins -- more than double his nearest competitor -- and is Canada's leading percentage driver this year with a 0.524 UDRS.
Mohawk Park regular Phil Hudon will pick up the catch-drive on inside starter Shots Fired, who is coming off back-to-back wins in April, with Usual Suspect (Post 4, Brad Watt) and Promising Shadow (Post 5, Marino) rounding out the Marino starters in the Linton.
Hudon was recruited by Marino for the stakes drive during his last visit and the B.C. native will be in town this week, picking up a full slate of drives on both the Thursday and Friday night cards.
"Just went for a visit last time [and] Marino asked if I would want to come drive one in the stake, and haven’t seen my mom in quite some time so I jumped at the opportunity to go back," Hudon told Trot Insider. "It will be great to see my mom and bro, cousins and childhood friends... I'm grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait to catch up with everyone. There's nothing like coming home, it will bring back memories."
Hudon last drove at Fraser Downs on Jan. 1, 2015 while participating in a fundraising drive for the Surrey Food Bank.
Click the following links for free program pages for Thursday and Friday.
To view entries for Fraser Downs, click the following link: Entries - Fraser Downs.