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14 Independent & Free Press, Tuesday,August 31, 2010 SPORTS & LEISURE Slave Dream has trainer O'Reilly `living the dream' By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer For someone who has been involved in standardbred horse racing for nearly 30 years and racked up $4.3 million in earnings, Frank O'Reilly says he's never trained the likes of his prize five-year-old gelding, Slave Dream. O'Reilly, who moved to the Acton area last year to be closer to his stable of 15 trotters at Campbellville's Mohawk Raceway, is on cloud nine these days thanks to Slave Dream's victory in the recent $300,000 Nat Ray race on Hambletonian Day at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Slave Dream's winner's purse of $150,000 on one of harness racing's biggest events brought his season's total to $341,000 in seven races, with O'Reilly noting that much bigger paydays and age group records could be imminent. "He's by far the most superior horse I've been involved with in 29 years in the business, a once-in-a-lifetime gift," said the Wolfe Island native. "Slave Dream has got me living the dream." The Nat Ray win was hardly a wireto-wire effort for Slave Dream after a terrible start in which he broke stride and was eight lengths off the lead at one point. Listed at 7-to-1 odds, driver John Campbell steered him up alongside the inside rail in a 28-second final quarter to finish in 1:52. "He's done final quarters of 26 and change at Mohawk and finished third in the Maple Trot even though he had a bad bruise on his foot. He's the real deal," O'Reilly added. "We'd like to get him in a dozen races by the end of the year. Good horses treat the big races like it's a title fight and whether he goes out and breaks a record it doesn't matter because he's not worried about times. He's a champion and wants to win." O'Reilly had another special evening Sunday in the company of many family members and friends as Slave Dream won the Frank Ryan Memorial Trot by three lengths at Rideau Carleton Raceway. Slave Dream is slated to run later this month at the Lexington Mile in Kentucky and in one of the premier events of the year, the Breeders Crown at Florida's Pompano Downs in November. Veteran driver John Campbell guided Slave Dream, trained by Acton-area resident Frank O'Reilly, to victory at the prestigious Nat Ray race during Hambletonian Day in New Jersey. Photo courtesy Lisa Photo Hayward wins Canadian senior title A final-round six-over-par 79 was good enough for Mary Ann Hayward to claim her first Royale Cup Canadian Senior Women's Championship last week at the Morningstar Golf Club in Parksville, B.C. Hayward, 50, a member of The Club at North Halton, began with rounds of 69-74 to finish the 54-hole event at three-overpar 222, seven shots ahead of runner-up Alison Murdoch of Victoria, B.C. With the win, the Aurora resident has qualified for the U.S. Women's Senior Amateur Championships in Fort Myers, Fla. Oct. 9-14. North Halton's Gloria Sinclair also played at the Canadian senior women's event in B.C., placing in a tie for 48th after rounds of 82-84-90. Raiders open preseason with 2-2 split at Cottage Cup tournament By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer With the regular season set to start Sept. 11, the Georgetown Raiders saw plenty of exhibition action this past weekend, coming away from the Cottage Cup tournament in Huntsville with a 2-2 record. The Raiders defeated the Stouffville Spirit twice, 5-2 and 5-3, while losing to the host Otters 2-0 and the Hamilton Red Wings 7-5. New coach and general manager Greg Walters continues to fine-tune his roster leading up to their Ontario Jr. A Hockey League home opener on Sept. 11 against the Newmarket Hurricanes and will have two more pre-season contests later this week against the Toronto Jr. Canadiens. The teams will meet Thursday in Etobicoke, followed by a return match Friday at the Alcott Arena at 7:30 p.m. "It's a work in progress and we didn't have our full lineup in Huntsville, just more or less evaluating players and where they might fit in," said Walters, an assistant coach with the Ontario Hockey League's Sarnia Sting before taking the Raider reins during the off-season. "Some good things went on and some not so good. It's a new system and they were starting to catch on to it as the weekend went on." Rookie Patrick Megannety (2), Evan Rodrigues, Justin Basso and Jordan Reed scored in the first win over Stouffville. The loss to Hamilton was "a little too much run-and-gun" for Walters, with Ajax Attack pickup Reed tallying four times and Basso netting the other. Kyle Dube, Roger Sherwood, Reed, Brock LaBelle and Duston Hebebrand were the Georgetown marksmen in Sunday's victory over Stouffville. Goalies Derek Mohney and Michael Stiliadis played in two games each. Recent signees by the Raiders include forwards LaBelle of Ohio, Mississauga's Kyle Camilleri and Weston Gaul of Thamesford Jr. C, along with defenceman Tyler Shiplo of the Mississauga Chargers. Several prospects are at OHL training camps this week and Walters will be in Kitchener to see which players from the OHL's Rangers may be coming to Georgetown as part of the teams' affiliation. HEELIS DEALT: Georgetown's Liam Heelis is headed for the Scenic City to play out his overage season in the Ontario Hockey League. The 19-year-old centre was traded by Peterborough after three full years with the Petes to the Owen Sound Attack for a fourth-round draft pick on the weekend. A 6-foot-1, 190-pound centre, Heelis had a career-high 18 goals and 13 assists along with 95 penalty minutes in 67 games for the Petes last season. 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