Pacer seeks redemption in $263,000 Juravinski final

After watching Seven Colors (Stay Hungry-Rainbowinthedark) take a misstep in his Charles Juravinski Memorial Cup elimination this past weekend, harness racing trainer Andrew Harris is hoping to see the 4-year-old pacer put his best foot forward in Sunday’s C$263,000 final at Flamboro Downs.

Seven Colors went off stride at the start of his elim, getting away seventh in the seven-horse field, but rallied to finish fourth to advance to the Juravinski final. He will start from post one in Sunday’s event for 4-year-old pacers with regular driver Dexter Dunn in the sulky after Trevor Henry guided the stallion in the elimination. He is the 2-1 second choice on the morning line.

Pacers win at a 20.2-percent clip leaving from post one at Flamboro Downs, the best win percentage of any of the nine starting spots at the half-mile oval.

“He’s doing good now,” Harris said. “The elim didn’t exactly go our way; nothing went our way that day. But, touch wood, it seems like everything is starting to go our way now. He’s drawn the rail, so that’s a good spot, and right now he seems great.”

Harris was unsure why Seven Colors made his miscue in the elimination, which was his seasonal debut. The horse’s only other break in 25 career starts came in September of his 2-year-old season in 2022.

“You don’t ever expect anything like that to happen,” said Harris, who began training Seven Colors in August 2023 following his purchase by a group that includes himself, Bill Pollock, and Bruce Areman. “I think it was just one of those random things. He got around the track perfect after that. Trevor said he was perfect on the turns.

“We’ll just reset and look ahead. I trained him a little bit (in Canada on Thursday) and he seemed great. We’re in it, we’ve got the rail, and Dexter is coming back up. We’ll just put our best foot forward and try to get it done.”

Last year, Seven Colors won seven of 18 races and hit the board an additional six times on his way to $685,220 in purses. He finished second in the Cane Pace in his final start for trainer Brian Brown, then captured the Carl Milstein Memorial in 1:48.1 at Northfield Park in his debut with Harris. That winning time is the fastest in history for a 3-year-old pacer on a half-mile track.

Seven Colors also won the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship for 3-year-old male pacers and finished second in the Little Brown Jug.

Seven Colors will have a full stakes schedule ahead of him this season.

“He came back three times bigger than he was last year, and he’s way stronger,” Harris said. “He’s got a full dance card. It will be fun to get to travel around with him again.”

No Control and All Class were the winners of the Juravinski eliminations. No Control, trained by Tan Micallef and driven by Louis Roy, will start from post four and is the 8-5 favorite. All Class, with Bob McClure in the sulky for trainer Per Engblom, leaves from post five and is the 5-2 third choice.

Racing begins at 6:55 p.m. (EDT) at Flamboro Downs.

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA