Her Own Land concluded the regular season Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots season atop the leader board in points with a convincing seven-length victory this afternoon at Grand River Raceway in the first of four $18,000 divisions for three-year-old pacing fillies.
These races were slated to be raced last Wednesday evening but when the card of racing was cancelled due to poor track conditions they were rescheduled to today.
In the first split, James MacDonald sent Her Own Land directly to the top and she never looked back through fractions of :28.2, :57.3, 1:26.2 and widened her margin to more than seven lengths by the time she hit the wire in 1:54.2. Kyles Secret was second followed by Always Sunday.
A daughter of Blissfull Hall trained by Dave Menary for owner Hutt Racing Stable, Pa., Her Own Land now has four OSS victories from six tries this year.
Born To Dream also went gate to wire in her division for Doug McNair to win by a head over a fast-closing Nefertiti Blue Chip. Medowland Lindeylou was third. Lomangino Standardbreds of New Jersey bred and own the winner, a daughter of Camluck, who was recording her third OSS win of the season.
Trevor Henry guided Shadows Wonder to a front-end effort in the third division to win by more than five lengths in 1:56.4 over Double Joy and Can Art. Trainer Dr. Ian Moore co-owns the winner, a daughter of Shadow Play, with R G McGroup Ltd., New Brunswick and Serge Savard of Quebec.
The final division also saw the front-end hold up, as Jack Moiseyev drove the Royal Mattjesty filly Royal Mama to a gate-to-wire 1:57 score. Murrayfield battled the winner down the stretch and was a nose short at the wire. Momara was third. Also owned by Hutt Racing Stable, Royal Mama is trained by John Kopas.
This was the final regular season Grassroots event for this group of the 2014 season. The top point earners will face off in the Semi-Finals on September 20 at Mohawk.
To view the harness racing results for Friday at Grand River, click the following link: Friday Results – Grand River Raceway.
(OSS)