September 5, 2024
By Ontario Sires Stakes Communications
SARNIA, Ont., Sept. 5, 2024 – Hiawatha Horse Park will host the final stop of the Ontario Sires Stakes 50th Anniversary celebration tour on Saturday.
The 11-race card will be highlighted by three $20,000 OSS Grassroots Series divisions for two-year-old filly trotters.
Of note for Saturday’s card, there will be a driver who will be competing in all 11 races: Garrett Rooney.
Based in Iona, Ont., Rooney drives horses at many local tracks nearby him, including Hiawatha Horse Park, just an hour away from him.
With three Grassroots divisions to compete in, Rooney’s looking forward to Saturday’s card.
“I like it when some of the Sires Stakes come to Hiawatha or Sarnia or Dresden, and places like that, and I can get the opportunity to drive some Stakes horses because I wouldn’t get the opportunity otherwise,” said Rooney.
The Grassroots Series divisions Saturday are scheduled for Races 2, 5 and 7, and as luck would have it, Rooney’s getting the opportunity to drive a couple horses with strong morning odds in Muscle Mass daughters Incantation and Eartha K in Races 2 and 5.
Both fillies boast 2-1 morning odds, a good sign for Rooney’s chances to trot into the winner’s circle.
“I always seem to have luck [at Hiawatha] and I always seem to have a good run,” said Rooney.
Incantation is being trained by Jeff Williams and is a homebred of former trainer Robert McIntosh of Robert McIntosh Stables Inc. (Windsor, Ont.) and Tyrone Valley Farm (Bowmanville, Ont.). Eartha K is being trained by Stephen Bossence, was bred by Robert and Joan Boyce (London, Ont.), and is owned by Derek Reid (Etobicoke, Ont.), Dr. Robert Boyce, Richard Thompson (London, Ont.) and E C S Racing LLC. (Rockford, Mich.).
In Race 7’s final Grassroots division of the day, Rooney will be in the sulky behind Princess Dream, another Muscle Mass daughter, but without the favoured morning odds that Incantation and Eartha K had.
In a recent conversation Rooney had with Princess Dream trainer Dominic Gladu, however, he’s feeling confident the rookie filly has more to give than she’s shown so far in her young career.
“I did talk to Dominic Gladu last night and he really liked her training down but she got injured in the stalls, which kind of put her behind,” Rooney said. “But he thinks that she’s starting to catch up and getting tightened up now, and he thinks she’ll be OK.”
Princess Dream is owned by Thestable Princess Dream (Guelph, Ont.) and Hutchison Harness LLC. (North Ridgeville, Ohio), and was bred by Warrawee Farm (Rockwood, Ont.).
In advance of Saturday’s celebrations, noted Canadian Harness racing writer and historian Robert Smith wrote a brief history of Hiawatha Horse Park that you can read here.
Post time for Saturday at Hiawatha goes at 6:30 p.m. Click here for information on entries and wagering advice. If you’re unable to attend in person, please visit the Hiawatha Horse Park Youtube Channel for streaming information. You will be able to make a wager via HPIBet.
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