Harness racing fans will flock to Flamboro Downs on Sunday afternoon for the Dundas oval’s action-packed Confederation Cup program.
Ontario’s top sophomore trotters will warm up the enthusiastic crowd in the fifth and seventh races, competing in a pair of $130,000 Gold Finals. The Confederation Cup Eliminations will follow the Gold Finals, in Races 8 and 9, with the $581,500 final slated as Race 12.
Rick Zeron will pilot reigning Gold Final champion Miss Paris in the three-year-old trotting filly Gold Final and the Oakville resident was very pleased when the filly landed the trailing Post 9.
“I’m real happy with my post position,” says Zeron. “There are two horses in front of me that leave good, that’s going to help me.”
Zeron and Miss Paris will follow Dave “Mr. OSS” Wall and Daylon Miracle from Post 1 and Luc Ouellette and Circles from Post 2, and the reinsman is hoping those fillies will provide the perfect cover for the hard closing Miss Paris.
“We’ll play it by ear and see what happens,” says Zeron. “I’ll get her out in the flow, get her in contention, give her a shot, and see what happens in the stretch.
“She’s a big mare and she’s in great shape. Nifty Norman does a great job,” adds the reinsman.
Richard “Nifty” Norman conditions Miss Paris for Melvin Hartman of Ottawa, Herb Liverman of Miami Beach, FL and David McDuffee of Delray Beach, FL. The daughter of Kadabra and Pizza Dolce was flawless in Gold Series action as a two-year-old, sweeping two Gold events and the season ending Super Final. This season Miss Paris posted a second in her first Gold Elimination and a 1:54.2 personal best in the July 7 Gold Final at Georgian Downs. She heads into Sunday’s event off a third-place result in the July 21 Canadian Breeders Championship at Mohawk Racetrack.
With just nine fillies entering the season’s second Gold Series, no eliminations were required and all nine contenders will roll in behind the gate in Sunday’s fifth race.
The trotting fillies hand over the Gold Series torch to the three-year-old trotting colts in the seventh race, and trainer Mark Steacy is hoping Mikey Hanover can capitalize on the first inside post he has landed all season in an added money event.
“He’s probably given a lot of money away just because of post position,” speculates Steacy, noting that this week’s Post 3 comes at an opportune moment. “You need it on a half-mile, so the timing is good.”
Mikey Hanover made his debut in the May 21 Grassroots season opener at Mohawk Racetrack, scoring a 1:55.1 victory from Post 3, but making his first foray into the division’s upper echelons he landed the outside Post 10 for both his elimination and the final of Mohawk’s Goodtimes stake.
After a third-place effort in his June 30 Gold Elimination at Georgian Downs, Mikey Hanover landed Post 8 for the final and could only manage a fifth. The Majestic Son gelding came up with a sub-par performance in the July 13 Canadian Breeders Championship eliminations that Steacy attributes to the hot and humid weather, then finished fourth from Post 7 in the final.
In last week’s Gold Elimination Mikey Hanover and driver Paul MacDonell started from the outside Post 8 and trotted around the half-mile oval behind Cold Certified into third spot.
“He’s a big horse so I wasn’t sure how he’d handle Flamboro, but he was pretty good last week. He went through the turns quite well,” says Steacy. “He’s not real fast off the gate, but he can leave a little bit and with a better hole we might take a chance to do that.”
Lansdowne resident Steacy conditions Mikey Hanover for his partners David Reid of Glenburnie, David McDonald of Cornwall and Bridle Path Stables Ltd. of Ossining, NY. In his career the gelding has amassed a record of five wins, three seconds and three thirds for earnings of $103,344.
At Post 3 Mikey Hanover and MacDonell will line up in between elimination winners Cold Certified, who gets Post 2, and The Northern Dude, who will start from Post 5.
Post time for the outstanding Confederation Cup program is 1 p.m., with the Ontario-sired trotting fillies and colts waging battle over the Flamboro Downs oval in Races 5 and 7.
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To view entries for Sunday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Sunday Entries – Flamboro Downs.