Starting at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, Hanover Raceway will host a 10-race afternoon program to kick off the 60th anniversary season of harness racing.
The Prospect Series, for three-year-old pacing colts sired by Ontario, will be included in the program. Races two and six will have two $8,000 divisions. In the first field of six, Bettors Rush, who won the Prospect division in two races at Western Fair Raceway on May 15, is the 8-5 morning line favourite. Trainer Blake MacIntosh has Travis Henry scheduled to drive.
The outside starter from the Katie MacNeil stable, Ballykeel Painter, is the 7-5 early favourite in that race. Ballykeel Painter won in 1:56.4 against $20,000 claimers at Western Fair on May 24 and will have Daryl Thiessen back in the saddle. Another MacIntosh trainee, Macwow, drew the inside post for the second split.
This season, the half-mile oval in Hanover, Ontario, will play host to three more Prospect Series legs in addition to an Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Series leg. Dream Of Glory trotting stakes and the track's iconic Balanced Image will be among the other features of the event.
In the ninth race of the afternoon, Cassidy Schneider, the top trainer at Hanover Raceway the previous year, will have two opportunities to start the new season with a winning statement. She will send out Derby Dylan and Just Call Me Pete in a field of five horses who are $8,000 claiming pacers. Top of the local rankings was Canada's 2023 Future Star Award winner, who won nine of her 83 races at Hanover Raceway last year.
For the 2024 meet, Hanover Raceway will host 15 Saturday race dates running through Sept. 14, except Aug. 10. Post time will be 1:30 p.m. for all programs except for a 5:30 p.m. program on Aug. 3.