Two of the best pacing mares in harness racing, both Breeders Crown winners in 2010, one makes her seasonal debut Monday, the other on the shelf after surgery and not likely to return until September
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Canada's Horse of the Year in 2010, Dreamfair Eternal is scheduled to qualify Monday at Mohawk Racetrack. Owner John Lamers confirmed that the daughter of Camluck-J Cs Natalie has come back in fine form in hopes of having another spectacular season.
"Everything is on schedule," Lamers said. "Since her last race, Pat (trainer Pat Fletcher) never completely shut her down. He kept jogging her to keep her fit and didn't get serious with her until a few months ago.
"We'll see how she qualifies on Monday and we'll discuss with Randy (driver Randy Waples) if she needs another qualifier."
A 45-time winner, Dreamfair Eternal enjoyed a marvelous 2010 campaign, which included a 16-4-1 record from 22 starts. She earned $942,320 in seasonal earnings and posted victories in the Milton Stakes, Artiscape Pace, Masters Series and Breeders Crown, just to name a few.
"She will have the same schedule like last year with one exception," Lamers commented. "We would love to take her to Kentucky and race in the Allerage at The Red Mile. Like any horse, she would just love that track surface and it would be great to race her there."
Overall, Dreamfair Eternal is a winner of $1,708,735 so far in her career with a 1:49 lifetime best taken at The Meadowlands in 2009.
Divisional rival Put On A Show, a winner of $1,947,726 lifetime, won't debut until at least September according to trainer Chris Ryder.
The four-year-old daughter of Rocknroll Hanover-Stienams Place underwent surgery on March 12 to remove a chip out of her right knee and the veteran conditioner isn’t taking any chances bringing his star pacer back.
“She’s coming back just fine,” Ryder said. “She’s been swimming and put on the walker everyday. We hope to be jogging her by next month. I’m not going to push her to have her ready for any major races. She’s four and will have lots of opportunity later this year, including the Breeders Crown at Woodbine.”
Ryder, who has 30 horses at Winners International Farm in New Jersey, said the chip didn’t occur until Put On A Show was trained down to 2:15.
“All winter long, she was training fine then this misfortune happened. You plan to have an exciting year then something like this happens. It’s not the worse thing in the world, but isn’t the best either. ”
Owned by Craig Henderson, Richard and Joanne Young, Put On A Show was the Dan Patch Award winner last year for the top three-year-old pacing filly in the United States. She compiled a record of 12-3-0 from 16 starts and $1,171,228 in seasonal earnings.
Richard Young and the Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) partnered together earlier this year to create a $100,000 Invitational race called A Spring Of Hope, for aged mares on September 3 at Mohawk Racetrack.
“I don’t know if we will be ready for that race,” Ryder said. “It will be a tight squeeze, but I know Richard would love to have her participate in the event, given he’s helping sponsor it.”
A Spring of Hope is a foundation created by Young's daughter, Brittany, which builds wells for schools in impoverished areas in Africa.
Overall, Put On A Show has a 19-5-0 record from 25 lifetime starts. She scored her career best of 1:49.4 in Lexington, Kentucky.
(with files from WEG; photos(L-R): Dreamfair Eternal, Put On A Show, credit racehorsephoto.com)