There will be plenty of star power Saturday, September 12 at Mohawk Racetrack, as trotting phenom Muscle Hill will be making his Canadian debut, Pepsi North America Cup winner Well Said will strut his stuff, and Sportswriter will return to the scene of his victory this past weekend in the
$1 million Metro Pace.
Fresh off his 1:52.3 victory in the World Trotting Derby at the DuQuoin State Fair in Illinois, Muscles Yankee colt Muscle Hill will be taking part in the first of two $40,000 eliminations for the Canadian Trotting Classic for three-year-olds. The Greg Peck-trained and Brian Sears-driven trotting dynamo has been the talk of the sport this year, having won all seven of his starts, including the $1.5 million Hambletonian.
Muscle Hill has drawn Post 9 in Race 4, which will house a nine-horse field. Other notables in the first CTC elim include Tom Cango (PP3, John Campbell) and Duded Up (PP5, Steve Condren).
The other CTC elim, which will showcase a nine-horse field, has been carded as Race 6. Explosive Matter (PP1, Ron Pierce), Judge Joe (PP5, John Campbell) and Southern Rocketop (PP6m Dave Magee) are some of the notables in the field.
The top five finishers from each CTC elim will advance to the $1 million final, which will be raced Saturday, September 19 over the Campbellville, Ont. oval.
Three-year-old Western Hanover colt Well Said is scheduled to make his first pari-mutuel start at Mohawk since capturing June's $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup in one of two divisions of the Simcoe Stakes. In addition to the 'Cup,' the Steve Elliott-trained and Ron Pierce-driven colt has captured the Meadowlands Pace, a division of the Burlington and the Battle of the Brandywine.
Well Said has drawn Post 2 in Race 10, which will house a seven-horse field.
The other Simcoe division has been carded as Race 2 and will feature a six-horse field.
Fresh off his 1:49.2 World Record in the Metro Pace, Sportswriter will be taking part in the first of two divisions of the Champlain Stakes for two-year-old pacers. Trained by Casie Coleman, Sportswriter provided driver Mark MacDonald with his first win in a $1 million event in the Metro.
The day after Sportswriter's Metro win, Trot Insider spoke with Coleman about how the colt came out of the race.
Sportswriter has drawn Post 3 in Race 3, which will house a nine-horse field. Rock Me Please, who finished third in the Metro, will start from Post 8 with driver Steve Condren.
The other Champlain division has been carded as Race 9 and will feature Battle of Waterloo elim winner Future Million (PP5, Simon Allard).
Click here to view Mohawk's harness racing entries for Saturday, September 12.