Some of the best horses Canadian harness racing has to offer will make the trek to Barrie for eliminations of the Masters Series, set for this Thursday at Georgian Downs
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With only seven aged pacing mares entered, all entrants will advance to the $125,000E final as part of the third annual Gold Rush night on Saturday, July 10. The mares advancing to the final are, listed in alphabetical order, Dreamfair Eternal, Live To Dream, My Red High Heels, Northern Duchess, To Helen Back, Voelz Hanover and Windsong Filou. All seven mares will compete in a $20,000 prep race, carded as Race 4 on Thursday night.
Aged trotting horses will compete in Races 5 and 6 in two $25,000 eliminations with the top four and one fifth-place finisher (chosen by random draw) qualifying for the final. In the first elimination, two of the fastest trotting horses to ever set foot on Georgian Downs will face off as Misterizi (PP5, Rick Zeron) makes his seasonal debut against the red-hot Adam T (PP6, Shane Weber), who owns the Georgian track standard of 1:53.1.
In the second division, Define The World (PP2, Paul MacDonell) makes his first start on Canadian soil since his trip to Europe in May, and will be challenged by Lubbock (PP1, Zeron) who won the 2010 Hiram Woodruff earlier this year at the Meadowlands before moving on to butt heads with the Open class at Harrah's Chester.
Aged pacing horses are well represented with six top-shelf competitors from WEG's Open class making the drive up Hwy. 400. In the first elimination - Race 7 - Astreos Flash (PP2, Jody Jamieson) and Lucky Man (PP4, Mark MacDonald) look to receive a fair amount of support from the betting public.
The second elim in Race 8 features just five horses, but four of those horses are certainly not strangers to each other: Keystone Horatio (PP1, Randy Waples), Ramegade Bruiser (PP2, Rick Zeron), Stonebridge Terror (PP4, Mark MacDonald) and last year's Masters Champ Bigtime Ball (PP5, Paul MacDonell).
Gostreet (PP6, Lyle MacArthur) captured the 2009 Final for aged trotting mares and she's back to defend her crown against 13 other mares. In her elimination, two-time O'Brien Award winner Elusive Desire (PP5, Paul MacDonell) will aim for her first win of the campaign. She captured both her elimination and the $130,000 OSS Gold Final as part of Gold Rush Night in 2009.
Friendly Amigo (PP1, Trevor Ritchie) has been second in three straight Fillies & Mares events at Mohawk but gets relief from the likes of Windsong Soprano and Yursa Hanover in her elimination. The Amigo Hall mare set a track record of 1:55.4 over Kawartha Downs' five-eighths mile oval in 2009 that was one tick off the Canadian record set by the great Peaceful Way.
The Masters Series will share the spotlight with four Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Finals as part of Georgian's third annual Gold Rush. For Georgian's Thursday entries, click here.