With four straight wins, Riina Rekila’s Hamdalla will look to keep his streak intact in Thursday's $32,700 Tie Silk Series final at Woodbine Racetrack.
The son of Taurus Dream hasn’t missed the board in six starts this season and will look for his biggest payday of his young career for his Campbellville, Ont. conditioner.
“He’s continued to get better and better,” said Rekila. “He was my best two-year-old training down and so far he hasn’t proved me wrong. He’s a very handy horse with good size and easy to drive.”
Hamdalla debuted last fall and raced seven times with a 2-3-0 record in 2012.
“He got to the races later in the season because he got sick on me in the spring,” explained Rekila. “He was trained down to 2:15, but then got sick so we turned him out for a few months.”
Rekila first noticed the trotting sophomore when he was entered into the 2011 Indiana Premier Yearling Sale.
“I know his family quite well and there is some horses from his family that raced in Europe that wasn’t listed on his pedigree page,” said Rekila. “I really liked his yearling video and went to the sale specifically to buy him.”
Rekila shelled out $26,000 for the youngster on behalf of Overseas Farm.
“I immediately had high hopes for him,” she said. “He did everything right and is a calm, good size animal and easy to train. He continues to improve and I think he’s going to get better with age and become a very useful horse.”
Hamdalla raced in the first leg of the Tie Silk Series on April 19, winning in 1:59.2, but Rekila elected to bypass the second.
“He’s going to have a long season ahead of him and I wanted to pick my spots with him,” she said. “I don’t want to race him each week right now and I'm trying to keep him fresh. He has an Indiana Sires Stakes event in a couple of weeks.”
Rekila will guide Hamdalla from post two in race five on Thursday evening at the Rexdale oval.
“If he races the way he’s been than I think he’s got a good shot to win,” she said. “You always respect your competition and anything can happen in a race, but he’s been very good right now.”
Hamdalla is also eligible to the Breeders Crown, Goodtimes Trot and Yonkers Trot, just to name a few.
The Tie Silk Series is for three-year-old colt and gelding trotters that are non-winners of $30,000 in 2012.
The field for the $32,700 final will line up as follows:
1. Just Make Believe
2. Hamdalla
3. Muscle On Broadway
4. Rock Of Cashel
5. You Rock My World
6. Devries Hanover
7. Bloodstockshalltab
8. Devlin Seelster
9. Brewmaster
10. On And On
To view Thursday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Thursday Entries - Woodbine Racetrack.
(With files from WEG)