Woodbine Ent. Braces for New Holland Trotting Series Finals

Woodbine Entertainment hosted the second leg of its first-ever New Holland Trotting Series at its Woodbine Mohawk Park. On Monday, the Standardbred track saw four different winners who will now face off in a thrilling final for the event. Last week’s winners were Ritson and Itstimetogohome and there was a chance for them not to repeat the success.

Woodbine Entertainment is Ontario’s largest operator of live horse racing, and its New Holland Trotting and Pacing Series was announced in January 2023. The new series will be sponsored by New Holland Agriculture, and it is for horses of any age and are non-winners of CA$150,000 or CA$175,000 for fillies and mares in 2022. The two events have CA$60,000 added money finals.

This Week’s Racing

Monday saw the second New Holland Trotting Series leg with two CA$30k divisions. In the first split, Ritson with Scott Young as a driver tried last week’s tactics by playing catch-me-if-you-can, when they were first. However, this week it was a different story. This week’s winner was Sermon, who came ahead of Itstimetogohome, and HP Mama B, which formed the top three.

Sermon is trained by Per Engblom for owners Longbridge Trotting Inc. of Delray Beach and Consus Racing Stable Inc. of Vero Beach in Florida, U.S. The six-year-old trotter has now recorded 10 career tallies with CA$282,677 in career winnings. The horse was the second favourite to win the division as he paid CA$9.60 to win the race.

Meanwhile, Locatelli was the crowd favourite for the second division and he delivered it with ease. The horse finished first with a time of 1:54.3. Meanwhile, Franks Angel got to second, just three lengths of the winner with Swan Trixie coming in as third. Locatelli is trained by Harry Poulton for Thestable Locatelli Group of Guelph, Ont. and Hutchison Harness LLC of North Ridgeville, Oh.

Woodbine Entertainment reminded that the top 10 declared money earners will compete for the CA$60,000 New Holland Trotting Series final on Saturday, March 25, 2023. For this week’s race, trainer Richard Moreau sent out 10 horses from his stable and the country’s leading conditioner had a total of three winners. Now, he boasts 73 season wins with CA$1,124.260 in earnings.

Busy 2023 Schedule

For this year, the horse racing operator has once more prepared an action-packed Standardbred stakes schedule with over CA$15 million in stakes. Once again, the season will be highlighted by the Pepsi North America Cup on June 17, 2023, and the Mohawk Million on September 23, 2023. All nine slot owners for the Mohawk Million have already been revealed.

It should be also reminded that 2022’s Standardbred season was one for the history books, as the operator disclosed a record-setting all-sources handle amounting to CA$444 million and was generated over 218 racing cards. There were a total of 2,293 races which had an average betting handle of CA$193,707.73 per race

Source: “New Holland Trotting Series Legs Complete” Standardbred Canada, March 14, 2023