Woodbine Mohawk Park returns from a few days of inactivity with an overstuffed 15-race card on Saturday night, highlighted by a pair of New Holland finals, featuring older trotters and pacers. Both series for non-winners of $150,000 in 2023 contain a number of accomplished campaigners with upper six-figure earnings and some with past stakes experience. Pemberton, the 2020 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Super Final winner for 3-year-old male trotters, never quite translated that success into further stakes victories but has turned into a Preferred-level trotter on the Mohawk circuit. After missing all of 2021 and making just 12 starts in 2022, the now 7-year-old was able to win five times in 18 tries last year, good for $102,120. With her parents, who bred and raised Pemberton, wintering in Hawkinsville, Georgia, and the New Holland Series a good target race, Julie Walker has been handling the training of the gelding since late November. She admits that there was never a conclusive answer as to why he had to miss his 4-year-old season but attributes the lighter schedule in recent years to making sure he's at his best when he's on the track. "My mom and dad have been really patient with him," said Walker, who sends out Pemberton from post two with James MacDonald in the bike. "I think a lot of his 4-year-old year was just learning how to go with the little aches and pains he had. They brought him down to Georgia that year and he came around." Pemberton has been to the track three times thus far in 2024 and come home with a pair of victories and one second, all while sent off as the favorite, a status he'll likely hold during post time for the C$70,000 New Holland final slated as race nine. The son of Wheeling N Dealin easily dispatched his foes in the second leg of the series in 1:55 2/5 after nabbing a second in leg one. "They are all tough horses but him, on his own, he's a very good animal. He's got the lungs and he's got the heart," said Walker when asked about Pemberton's chances in the final. "I was able to take the corks [metal pegs that are screwed into a horse's shoe to provide more traction] off, and the track has been really good, so that is big. I raced him a few times in the winter with the corks on, and the track was hard and the wind was terrible. He's such a closer that when there is a headwind it is tough on him. The last few times the track was beautiful and I had the corks off. He's really coming into his own now." ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Pemberton was second behind Southwind Oncore when the 5-year-old went down the road from post seven in a career-best 1:53 for driver Travis Cullen and trainer Jodie Cullen. Things didn't go quite as planned in the second round of the New Holland when the son of Muscle Hill made a costly break from post one, a position he'll have to deal with again this week. Still, the pole-sitter looks like the main threat to Pemberton despite his status as just the 5-1 fourth choice on the morning-line. "We are hoping for better results this week. It was just bad luck in his last start," said Travis Cullen. "It's not an ideal post for trotters, but that's ok; makes it more of a challenge." While Pemberton has earned a healthy $543,179 in his career, the class of the nine-horse field remains the 9-year-old Perfetto, a winner of over $850,000. The classy son of Majestic Son is winless on the year in five starts, but he has been finishing his miles with good trot and could be a threat with a better pace scenario for driver/trainer Dagfin Henriksen. Whichwaytothebeach is a multiple stakes winner that has earned $820,753 during his career and could be the horse to beat in the $71,000 pacing split of the New Holland Series carded as race six. The 6-year-old romped to a 1:50 3/5 victory last week as the second choice behind Jilliby Dynamite A, who won the opening leg with a 1:53 1/5 score over a track rated good. Whichwaytothebeach and driver Sylvain Filion start from post three, just to the inside of Jilliby Dynamite A and Louis- Philippe Roy. A potential upsetter in the field is Gias Surreal from post two with Jody Jamieson picking up the drive. Just a third-place finish from reaching millionaire status in Canada, the 8-year-old skipped leg two of the series and sharpened up with a placing in an overnight event. The action at Woodbine Mohawk Park kicks off earlier than normal with a 6:10 P.M. (EDT) post time.