The Stable That God Loves will be active at four Canadian and U.S. tracks this weekend looking to boost its season’s victory skein of 85 ever closer to the 100-win mark.
Casie Coleman, the leading trainer of members of the Stable That God Loves, will send out a formidable group, some in Grand Circuit stakes events, Saturday night at Mohawk Racetrack.
Play The Bell, winner of three in six season’s starts, will tackle a field of nine, including undefeated Percy Bluechip, who is four-for-four, in the $169,381 Champlain Stakes for two-year-old pacing fillies in the second race with Dave Miller in the bike.
Western Passage, owner of two seconds and a third in three season’s attempts, goes postward from post nine with Trevor Henry at the reins in the second division of the $97,880 Champlain Stakes.
Undefeated pacing colt Summer Travel headlines the group of pacing colts and geldings in the evening’s second division of the $96,880 Champlain Stakes in the ninth race. The speedy son of Western Ideal, who was scratched sick from last weekend’s Nassagaweya Stakes, is three-for-three and currently the fastest two-year-old in North America with a mark of 1:50.3. He will leave from the coveted rail position with Dave Miller at the controls.
Play The Bell, Western Passage and Summer Travel are co-owned by Chatham, Ont. horseman Steve Calhoun and trained by Casie Coleman. Coleman is the leading trainer of horses in The Stable That God Loves, sporting a lofty .345 UDRS from 12 wins, seven seconds and 11 thirds in 61 starts with Calhoun co-owned horses.
Coleman will send out McWicked in Saturday’s featured $615,000 Canadian Pacing Derby. The Ed James-owned soon to be multi-millionaire leaves from the rail position in race seven with Dave Miller driving in the 10-horse field. Currently the owner of a healthy $1,992,206 career bank account, the six-year-old son of McCardle is poised to reach the $2 million plateau in the Derby. McWicked is 6-3-1 from 19 season’s attempts. He finished third behind Sintra (second) and winner Rockin Ron in an elimination for the Derby.
Stateside, crack two-year-old trotting filly Aerial Flight will go postward Saturday in the $15,000 New York Sires Stakes at Saratoga, New York. Fresh off an impressive seven-length, 1:57.1 score in an overnight event at Vernon Downs, the Donald Armitage- trained lass is the 5-2 early morning line favourite for owners Dr. Roly Armitage and Donald and Glenda Armitage of Dunrobin, Ont.
Also on Saratoga’s Saturday card, Sunfire Bluechip, co-owned by Toronto’s Rob and Wayne Giles, is entered in a $50,000 Open Handicap, along with Norm Clements’ PL Hercules, in a separate division of the Open Handicap.
Got Some Spark trained by Lindsay Kerr for Sally Charlton and partners of Tecumseh, Ont., will be trying for her fifth season’s victory Sunday in the Fillies and Mares Preferred 3 at Flamboro Downs.
A portion of the season’s purse earnings of the members of The Stable That God Loves goes to support the Standardbred Racetrack Chaplaincy of Canada that is dedicated to providing for the human, spiritual and emotional needs of the horse racing workforce in southwestern Ontario.
Stalls are always available in The Stable That God Loves. Every trotter, pacer, thoroughbred, or quarter horse is welcome and guaranteed a stall. Please send requests for stall space to: Ken Middleton at [email protected], or Norm Clements at [email protected].
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(With files from The Stable That God Loves)