Hastings notes: Sacred Delight tackles older rivals for first time

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Entries were light at Hastings over the weekend, and just seven races were carded each on Saturday and Sunday. Headlining Saturday’s card is a $16,000 claiming race for fillies and mares that drew seven horses.

Sacred Delight and Suances Flower look like the main players in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint.

Sacred Delight, trained by Rosann Anderson, won three races as a 3-year-old last year and will be tackling older fillies and mares for the first time. Her two most recent wins for $25,000 on June 7 and $12,500 on Oct. 6 came off layoffs, so she could be dangerous as a fresh horse.

Suances Flower probably wants more distance, but she should have a fitness edge coming off wins at Golden Gate Fields and Turf Paradise. She is trained by Jim Brown, who claimed her out of her last start for owner John Hanson.

Dubois moves horses

The shortage of horses at Hastings wasn’t helped when trainer Lenore Dubois moved 13 horses to Northlands Park. Most of the horses are owned by Nick and Pauline Felicella, who have been prominent owners at Hastings for many years. They were inducted into the British Columbia Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2008. They raced the all-time leading money-earning British Columbia-bred, Spaghetti Mouse, who raced exclusively at Hastings.

“We just couldn’t get the races we needed for our horses,” said Pauline Felicella. “We love to watch our horses run, so hopefully we’ll see them back at Hastings.”