Ontario Racing, in cooperation with participating Ontario racetracks, is pleased to announce the Prospect Series for Ontario-sired two- and three-year-olds will return for a second year in 2021.
The 2021 season will open on Saturday, May 22, at Hiawatha Horse Park with the three-year-old pacing colts and geldings. Competing at Grassroots and Signature racetracks across the province, horses will accumulate points through five regular season events for each age, sex and gait, with each leg worth $6,500 plus starting fees. The top nine point earners from each division will compete in a $15,000 final at Grand River Raceway on Friday, Sept. 24.
A complete Prospect Series schedule and conditions are available on the Ontario Racing website.
Open to two- and three-year-olds which have been sustained to the Ontario Sires Stakes program, the Prospect Series was well received by owners and trainers in its inaugural year.
“There’s no easy racing (in Ontario). The Prospect Series helped out last year,” said trainer Shawn Steacy, who captured the 2020 two-year-old trotting filly final with Radical J J. “I think it’s a good thing, especially for the two-year-olds.”
The 2020 winner of the Johnston Cup as the leading trainer in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, Brantford, Ont., resident Steacy has 16 Ontario Sired two-year-olds and 23 three-year-olds in his barn this winter, all hoping for success on the provincial stakes circuit.
Dr. Ian Moore, whose trainees swept the pacing colt divisions at the 2020 O’Brien Awards, started a trio of youngsters in the Prospect Series least season and was pleased to hear that the program will return for a second season.
“I thought the Prospect Series was an excellent alternative. I really liked it,” said Moore, who is training 17 Ontario-sired two- and three-year-olds at his winter base in Florida. “I think it’s a good thing to have an option for your OSS horses that aren’t good enough for the Grassroots or to race at Mohawk.”
Owners and trainers can choose to race their horses exclusively in the Prospect Series, or move between the Prospect Series and Ontario Sires Stakes throughout the season. However, horses can only be entered at one level for each leg (i.e. Prospect Series No. 1 or Grassroots Series No. 1) and they can only be declared into one postseason event, either the Prospect Series Final or Grassroots Semi-Final.
For additional information about the Prospect Series, please visit the Ontario Racing website or contact the program administrator at [email protected].
(Ontario Sires Stakes)