Betterthancheddar's connections hope Summertime is the right time
Campbellville, ON --- The Summertime eliminations set for Saturday (July 2) at Mohawk will be a pivotal test for the Casie Coleman-trained Betterthancheddar.
The four-time O’Brien Award winner highly praised her sophomore pacer when he made his racing debut in May, saying the son of Bettor's Delight was one of the best horses she has ever had. Despite a disappointing fifth-place effort in his Pepsi North America Cup elimination and failing to advance to the C$1.5 million final, Coleman still feels the same way about her colt.
“He’s a wicked, wicked fast horse and has all kinds of talent,” she said. “The horse has paced (1):49 in three of his last four starts and he’s only had six lifetime starts so in my eyes that’s pretty impressive. He'll hopefully show who he is pretty soon because he can absolutely fly.”
Coleman feels she has a Meadowlands Pace horse in her barn and how he performs in his elim will determine the conditioner’s course of action for where he will race on Saturday, July 9.
The Cambridge resident is hoping luck will be on their side this time around. Betterthancheddar lost his regular driver Mark MacDonald due to injuries sustained in an accident in late May. MacDonald and Betterthancheddar will rejoin forces Saturday evening for the elimination.
“Mark gets along with that horse better than anybody. He just got hurt right before the North America Cup, it obviously sucks, but he will be there to drive him Saturday night,” Coleman said. “He is going to drive just a little bit, just for me.”
Coleman expressed her happiness to have MacDonald back in the bike for her and shared that MacDonald believes it will be just two more weeks until he is back driving full-time.
“We’ve been together for quite a few years and we always do pretty good together,” she said. “You can’t time an accident like that, but it was the worst timing ever that’s for sure.
“He’s been real good so hopefully he’ll have some luck Saturday night,” Coleman said.
Betterthancheddar will leave from post six in the ninth race to contest one of two C$20,000 Summertime eliminations for 3-year-old pacers.
Elimination winners may choose their post positions and the top five finishers will advance to the C$60,000 final slated for Saturday, July 9.
The fields for the eliminations are listed below:
First elimination (Race 2)
PP-Horse-Listed Driver
1. Visible Gold-Jack Moiseyev
2. Odysseus Bluechip-Mario Baillargeon
3. Ideal Deo-Mike Saftic
4. No Flash In Pan-Luc Ouellette
5. Rockabillie-Paul MacDonell
6. Rock On Moe-Chris Christoforou
Second elimination (Race 9)
1. Fantaddy-Scott Zeron
2. Risk Management-Mario Baillargeon
3. Wild Dragon-Sylvain Filion
4. Eighteen-Paul MacDonell
5. Roll On-Randy Waples
6. Betterthancheddar-Mark MacDonald
First race post time is 7:10 p.m.