Even though his sharp Rocknroll Hanover filly is three for three this season and is on the cusp of $1 million in career purse earnings, trainer Chris Ryder isn't taking anything for granted when it comes to this Saturday's eliminations for the Fan Hanover Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack
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Ryder's charge, the three-year-old Put On A Show, will start from Post 7 in the first of the three elims, which have been carded as Races 2 (7:51 p.m.), 9 (10:18 p.m.) and 10 (10:39 p.m.). The $680,000 (estimated) final of the Fan Hanover will be raced June 26 at the Campbellville, Ont. oval as part of the undercard of Pepsi North America Cup night.
But Ryder isn't looking down the road to the rich final, he has his eyes squarely transfixed on the upcoming elims.
"Well, I would like to think that we're the ones to beat, but that's not the attitude that I take," he said during an interview with the Woodbine Entertainment Group. "Every race is another race and you have to respect nearly every horse in there. You don't want to get too overconfident. We just try to do our job with our horse and let the chips land where they may."
The trainer acknowledged that many people have their eyes on his lass, but that is what happens when a filly wins in the fashion in which she has.
"It's early in the year, and everyone is looking at my filly and Fancy Filly, of course," Ryder explained. "I'm sure a few others are going to come out of the woodwork. Obviously the elims will tell us a lot this week and we will go from there."
The conditioner knows that even though his filly may be one of the front-runners in the category right now, the road doesn't get any easier.
"We know that it's going to get tougher from here on in," Ryder said. "We're just trying to keep her on the same plain and keep everything right side up."
Other notable fillies which will be stepping out to contest the Fan Hanover elims are 2009 O'Brien Award winner Fancy Filly, the Jack Darling-trained Ticket To Rock, the recent Ontario Sires Stakes series sweeper Western Silk, 2009 OSS Super Final winner FBs Terror and the chestnut Cowboys Dreamer who made a name for herself earlier this year at Woodbine Racetrack.
To view the entries for Mohawk's Saturday night program, click here.