Gregg McNair teamed up with driver Stuart Sowerby to capture two Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions at Hanover Raceway on Saturday evening.
McNair handed the lines of division leader Momara over to Sowerby in the fifth race and the reinsman gunned the two-year-old pacing filly away from post seven to a :29 opening quarter. Momara led comfortably through the :59.3 half and 1:28.4 three-quarters, then drew away to a two and one-half length victory in 1:57.3.
The win was Momara’s fourth lifetime and her third in Grassroots action. The Lis Mara daughter, bred and owned by trainer McNair of Guelph, Leonard Gamble of Etobicoke, and Don MacDonald and David Kryway of Amherstburg, sits atop the division standings with 175 points from three wins and one second.
In the ninth race fans opted for Skippin By over McNair trainee Can Art, but Sowerby ignored their prediction and once again controlled the pace from start to finish, hitting the wire in 1:58.3. McNair conditions Can Art for breeder Robert Chapple of Chatham, and the win was the Artistic Fella daughter’s second in Grassroots action.
Guelph resident Sowerby also captured the first Grassroots division, piloting Gram Rules to a front end victory in 1:57.4. Blake MacIntosh of Cambridge trains Gram Rules and shares ownership of the Classic Card Shark daughter with Brendan Rock of Waterdown. The filly scored her first win in an overnight event at Kawartha Downs on Aug. 10.
The other Grassroots victors were Shadows Wonder (1:58.4), Itsa Surprise Tome (1:57.2), Always Sunday (1:57), and Wishful Luck (1:59).
The two-year-old pacing fillies make their fifth Grassroots start at Mohawk Racetrack on Sept. 2.
The Ontario Sires Stakes makes one more stop at Hanover Raceway, bringing the two-year-old trotting fillies to town on Saturday, Sept. 7 for their sixth Grassroots event.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Hanover Raceway.