Killin Me Smalls goes for fifth straight on Century Downs opening day

Fans starving for live Thoroughbred racing in the Calgary, Alberta, area will be treated to an excellent opening-day feature at Century Downs on Saturday. The new track, located in Balzac, takes the place of Stampede Park, which last held racing in 2008.

Killin Me Smalls, trained by Ernie Keller, will put his four-race winning streak on the line when he runs in a seven-furlong allowance sprint for 3-year-olds and up that drew eight horses.

The $30,000 race is a prep for the $100,000 Harvest Plate on Oct. 22, which is the highlight of the 16-day meet, which runs through Nov. 5. Supporting the seven-furlong Harvest Plate is a $50,000 stakes for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles.

A scheduling change moved both divisions of the $50,000 CTHS Sales Stakes from Oct. 22 to Oct. 8. The 6 1/2-furlong races are restricted to 3- and 4-year-olds.

There are seven stakes in total for the meet.

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Century Downs races on Saturdays and Sundays, with first post at 12:50 p.m. Mountain. There are two Mondays at the meet, Oct. 2 and 9, which will begin at 3:10 p.m.

Standardbreds have been racing at Century Downs since 2015. Following their final day of this year’s meet on Sept. 9, 8,500 metric tons of material was added to the limestone base to make the track ready for Thoroughbreds. The new track is sand-based with silt, clay, and bark mulch included.

The track is 5 1/2 furlongs in circumference, with a chute that will allow two-turn races up to 7 1/2 furlongs.

Trainer Greg Tracy gave the new surface a solid thumbs-up. Tracy, the leading trainer at the recently concluded Northlands Park meet, has 35 horses stabled at Century Downs.

“I like it and I haven’t heard anyone complain about it,” he said. “Having more sand than Northlands, it should be perfect for racing in the fall. It is a fast track but you can’t hear the horses working or galloping going over it, so it seems to be kind. I think it will favor speed.”

Tracy has two horses entered in the feature, Blue Dancer and Hemlock Channel. If the track does favor speed, it will help the chances of Blue Dancer, who is coming off a runner-up finish behind For Cash in a $35,000 optional-claiming race at Northlands on Aug. 25. For Cash won the $48,000 Alberta Breeder’s Handicap by eight lengths in his next start on Sept. 16.

Hemlock Channel has an excellent record at the distance and he owns the track record for 6 1/2 furlongs at Northlands.

The horse they will all have to beat is Killin Me Smalls. The two-time Grade 3 winner with $657,015 in earning is in a class by himself and is shooting for his fifth straight stakes win.