The stage is set for the first two stakes finals of 2015 this Friday at Woodbine Racetrack.
The $45,000 Snowshoe Series and the $40,000 Blizzard Series finals have been carded as races six and nine on Friday’s 11-race card.
The Snowshoe for three and four-year-old pacers featured seven divisions over the opening two legs and saw seven different winners prevail. All seven winners will return to make up a wide-open ten-horse series finale.
Four of the seven winners, Ramblingamblinman (PP1, Rick Zeron), Kindofabigdeal (PP4, Sylvain Filion), A Boy Named Suuzzz (PP5, Jonathan Drury) and P L Heavenly (PP10, Anthony MacDonald), also had a second place finish in a separate leg.
The other three division winners were Vegas Rich (PP2, Paul MacDonell), Decisive Destiny (PP3, Trevor Henry) and Whistle Jimmy K (PP8, Doug McNair).
The Richard Moreau trainee Kindofabigdeal has been a top performer on the stakes series scene over the last few months.
The four-year-old son of No Pan Intended won a leg and finished second in the final of the Ontario Sired Autumn Series. The gelding followed that up by capturing the first two legs of the Valedictory, but finished third in the final on Boxing Day.
The connections of Kindofabigdeal will hope the third time's the charm to capture a series title, but they will have their hands full with a stack of challengers, including the speedy Ramblingamblinman.
Trained by Rick Zeron, Ramblingamblinman joined the Zeron barn in late November and turned in an eye-catching career best performance of 1:51.4 in a non-winners of two event on December 15.
The four-year-old son of Lis Mara finished second in the opening leg and followed that up with a five and a quarter length victory in round two. The second leg victory was the largest margin of victory in the first two rounds of the series.
The Snowshoe Series was first staged in 1978 and has been won been a launching pad for successful older horses, including Modern Legend, last year’s Canadian Pacing Derby champion, who won the series back in 2012.
Unlike the Snowshoe, the Blizzard Series for three and four-year-old pacing fillies and mares has been dominated by one horse.
Artistic Fusion (PP5, Sylvain Filion) has stamped herself as the horse to beat in the ten-horse final, after winning in both of the first two legs, including a more than seven-length victory in round one.
The Joe Agostino trainee won the Ontario Sired Autumn Series final on November 28 and finished second to Witch Dali in the Niagara Series final on Boxing Day.
A four-year-old daughter of Artistic Fella, Artistic Fusion won five of 19 starts last year and will look to improve to three for three in 2015 by sweeping the Blizzard Series for owner Mike Foote.
Mappos Moenhay (PP3, Mike Saftic), A Fearless Affair (PP8, Simon Allard) and Deuces For Charity (PP9, Paul MacDonell) were all division winners that also finished second in another leg and will be looking to block the broom of Artistic Fusion.
The Blizzard Series was first raced in 1980 and has been won by several mares that went on to be Open-class competitors, including Arts Secret (1998) and Numeric Hanover (2003).
In order to be eligible to both the Snowshoe and Blizzard Series, the three and four-year-olds had to be non-winners of two races or $30,000 lifetime as of October 31, 2014.
Post time for Friday night’s card is 7:25 p.m. To view the complete fields for Friday’s stakes finals, click one of the following links:
(WEG)