After her smashing victory against unrestricted company in the $415,000 Fan Hanover final at Woodbine Mohawk Park last Saturday, Shower Play will try something different this weekend.
The Shadow Play filly is entered in Saturday's $125,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event for three-year-old pacing fillies at Mohawk, the first time in her career she's stepped out of the OSS Grassroots division, where she's accumulated four wins and two seconds in six starts at ages two and three. Louis-Philippe Roy is once again down to drive.
Trainer and co-owner Rene Dion said the plan had been to start Shower Play in the last Gold event for two-year-old fillies last year, but that was shelved when she got sick.
"We just shut her down at that point, took our time with her. We're a small stable, close to our horses. We don't want one race to be the end," said Dion, who trains nine horses with partner Susie Kerwood.
Dion said he's had a number of comments since the Fan Hanover from well-wishers happy to see a small stable collect one of harness racing`s big pots. "People like it when the little guys win. It shows what can happen when you work hard, and Susie and I do. We're a good team."
The Fan Hanover was the second-richest stake won by a horse from their stable, second only to the $500,000 Breeders Crown final for older trotters captured in 2016 by Dion's now-retired champion Flanagan Memory.
"Flanagan was probably the horse of a lifetime," said Dion, "but this filly is pretty special too."
Lightly staked for 2018, she has the Simcoe Stakes and OSS Super Final as key events on the rest of her schedule.
To view the entries for Saturday's card of harness racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Woodbine Mohawk Park
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)