Kawartha Downs’ followers will recognize many of the horses and horsepeople that will be competing at Woodbine Racetrack on Thursday (November 30), including a quartet from the Murray Brethour barn.
In addition to racing four horses on the evening program, Brethour will also start a pair of rookie fillies that will be making their first career starts in a qualifying race prior to the start of the race card to view the qualifying entries, click here).
Consistently one of Kawartha Downs’ top trainers, Brethour will see his three-year-old filly Big Chute the first one out of the paddock to race on Thursday night, as she has Post 1 in the first race with Sylvain Filion slated to steer.
The filly is the first foal from Bon Ton Hanover who started and ended her career at Kawartha Downs for Brethour and owner/breeders Jeff Ruch and Dean Lockhart. Her daughter also earned her first charted line at the Fraserville oval, as she made a pair of qualifying starts last year at two. She’s been off since the spring and won her qualifier last week at Woodbine.
Staring alongside her in Post 2 will be another sophomore miss quite familiar to Kawartha fans in Doug Hie’s Britches Say What, who raced just about every week during KD’s 2017 racing season. Hie also starts another KD regular, Olliestrikesfame, in the fourth race on the card.
In the second race, the royally-bred Labero will start from Post 8 for trainer Randy Van Meer, who qualified the three-year-old son of Kadabra at Kawartha in early June. The gelding is the fifth foal of the top trotting mare Creamy Mimi ($929,000) and a brother to $679,000 winner French Laundry. Also competing in that race is Cindy Horner’s Muscle Museum, another regular performer at KD this year.
In Race 3, Brethour’s second starter of the night is Wesmont, the five-year-old gelding who has finished a close second in his last two starts at the Toronto track. Phil Hudon is scheduled to once again steer the trotter who captured the Billyjojimbob trot on Kawartha’s Titans of Trotting night in September. That victory was especially poignant, as Brethour drove the late great Hall of Fame trotter Billyjojimbob and was also in the bike for Wesmont’s win in the race named in his honour.
Murray’s other starters include Gillys Boy in Race 4 and Burlington in the eighth race. That race also includes Zebs Abbey, a former member of Murray’s barn and a winner at Kawartha on the closing night of racing in 2017.
Murray’s pair in qualifiers are both two-year-old fillies making their first lifetime starts.
The Big Jim miss Birch Island Betty is owned and bred by Kirk Thomas of Havelock and she’s drawn Post 3 in the fifth of six qualifying tests of the day. Alongside in Post 4 is her stablemate Dionne, a Sportswriter homebred for Geis Enterprise of Chicago.
Kawartha fans will also recognize St Lads Captain in the fourth race. The three-year-old Mach Three gelding won several times this year at KD for trainer and co-owner Wilf Perrault.
Per Henriksen, one of KD’s OHHA representatives, will send out Xanthos in Race 2. John Bax and Dagfin Henriksen, both former regulars at KD, each have a pair of starters entered on Thursday as well.
Post time is 7:30.
To view the harness racing entries for Thursday at Woodbine, click the following link: Thursday Entries – Woodbine Racetrack.
(Kawartha Downs)