Harness racing returns to Cape Breton on Saturday, May 10 as Northside Downs kicks off its 2025 season.
While the seven-dash card features a number of familiar faces, a pair of new challengers have emerged in the top class with a field of five assembled to compete in the afternoon's sixth race, the $1,700 Winners Over feature.
Two Points (PP3, 3-1) makes his local debut after a 13-win season in 2024. A five-year-old son of Deuce Seelster, Two Points made 35 starts in Prince Edward Island last year and hit the board in 25 of those starts for his previous connections. Now trained and co-owned by Aidan Dicks along with Danny Ferguson of Sydney, Two Points tuned up for his 2025 season with a qualifier at Northside on May 3, finishing second while pacing his mile in 2:00.4
The horse that defeated Two Points in that qualifier is no stranger to the Northside winner's circle and a consistent top class contestant for the past two seasons, Thunder Alley. In those past two seasons, the son of Mystery Chase has come out of the gate in fine form. In 2023, he won three of his first four seasonal starts and then topped that early season sharpness in 2024 with a five-race win streak to kick off the meet. He's the 5-2 morning line choice on Saturday, starting from post two for driver Gerard Kennedy, trainer Heather Hawkins and Nova Scotia-based owners Terri Morrison, Irwin Claener, Kirk MacRae and Angus MacEachern.
Eight-year-old Fear The Shadow (PP5, Keigan Madden, 4-1) makes his Cape Breton debut after Irish Rd Stables of Port Hood acquired the Ontario-based pacer last month. The richest horse in the field by virtue of his $137,313 bankroll, Fear The Shadow is a 12-time winner in his career that's showing no signs of slowing down over time. His seven-year-old season in 2024 ranked among his best for earnings, and he notched six of his 12 lifetime tallies in that season while racing at nine different racetracks across Ontario.
A pair of grizzled veterans with a wealth of experience in this class, Kiss Me Im Irish (PP1, Mark Pezzarello) and Revenant (PP4, Ryan Campbell, 9-2) round out the stout field of five.
Northside Downs will host a total of 27 live racing cards this year, with Saturday afternoons comprising the bulk of the race days. The Sydney, N.S. oval will race through to Saturday, Aug. 2, adding a Thursday card on Aug. 7 while taking a break during P.E.I.'s Old Home Week. Racing resumes on Aug. 24 with Saturdays through to Nov. 15 -- with an exception of a Monday afternoon card on Oct. 13 instead of Oct. 11.
First post time on Saturday is 1 p.m. (ADT). To view the entries for Saturday's card, click one of the following links: Northside Downs - Saturday Entries // Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).
(Standardbred Canada)