When the province’s top three-year-old pacing colts line up behind Mohawk Racetrack’s starting gate on Friday night for their $130,000 Gold final, Tony O’Sullivan is not
expecting Dalhousie Dave to top the impressive 1:49.4 effort he delivered in the elimination round, however the Cambridge, Ont. resident admits that he stopped being surprised by the gelding three or four wins ago.
“When he got good and started racing well I was probably the most surprised, and I’ve said that three or four times on record,” noted O’Sullivan. “Now nothing he does surprises me, because he is a totally different horse than he was four months ago.”
Dalhousie Dave arrived in O’Sullivan’s barn in January and did not make much of an early impression on the conditioner. The gelding was coming off a two-year-old season derailed by injury — his only recorded line a 2:02.2 qualifying win at Mohawk in late July 2009 — and was such an unenthusiastic pupil that O’Sullivan felt a Grassroots career might be the most Toronto, Ont. residents John and Jim Fielding could expect of their homebred.
On May 6 O’Sullivan entered the son of Astreos and My Precious Katie into a qualifier at Mohawk, put Jody Jamieson down to drive the youngster, and was quickly forced to upgrade his expectations. Dalhousie Dave rolled around the Campbellville oval to a second-place finish behind the highly-regarded Sportswriter, pacing his own mile in 1:54.4.
“I though he was maybe a Grassrooter,” recalled O’Sullivan. “The first time we qualified him I figured he was better than that, but still not what he is now.”
What the gelding is now is a winner of $158,614 who has never finished worse than third through 11 starts and has been first past the post on seven occasions.
Following his snappy qualifier, Dalhousie Dave made three starts in progressively tougher company and posted three victories by progressively wider margins. Still unconvinced that the gelding could take on the province’s premier colts, O’Sullivan sent him to Ottawa for the Grassroots season opener on June 20, where he waltzed around the Rideau Carleton Raceway oval to a 1:53.4 victory.
Next up on the gelding’s dance card was the Summertime Pacing Series back at Mohawk, and Dalhousie Dave and driver Jamieson extended their win streak to six with victories in the July 2 leg and the July 9 final, the latter in a spectacular 1:49.4. Off that impressive mile O’Sullivan sent Dalhousie Dave after the best in the country, and the gelding finished third in both his elimination and the final of the Canadian Breeders Championship.
In his Gold Series debut at Mohawk on July 31, Dalhousie Dave finished third once again, but upgraded to a second-place berth in the August 7 Gold final. He returned to the winner’s circle last week with another 1:49.4 clocking off a perfect pocket steer by Moffat, Ont. resident Jamieson, who will be back in the race bike on Friday when the pair line up behind the number seven on the Mohawk starting gate.
“I think he appreciated having that three week break,” noted O’Sullivan. “He had a few extra days off and then eight to 10 days of light jogging.”
Now that he has been converted into Dalhousie Dave’s biggest fan, O’Sullivan is focused on keeping the gelding healthy and happy through the remainder of the Gold Series season, noting that mental health is just as important as physical health for the high performing sophomore pacers.
“He’s an easy-ish horse to train. The key is keeping his mindset good,” said the horseman. “That’s the key to all horses, but especially for the good ones that have to really go to the bottom of the barrel every week.
“There’s no easy racing,” he added. “They can all pace in 1:50 and change, and a couple can pace in 1:49.”
Three of the contenders in Friday’s Gold Final paced in 1:49 and change last week, and the slowest of the 10 starters was clocked in 1:50.4. If the weather cooperates again this week, the Ontario Sires Stakes record of 1:49 could be in jeopardy. The other elimination winner, and reigning Gold final champion, Mach Dreamer, will put his three-race win streak on the line from the outside Post 10, while Canadian Breeders Champion Big Bay Point gets Post 1.
Mohawk Racetrack’s first race parades onto the seven-eighths mile oval at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, and the spotlight will shine on the three-year-old pacing colts in Race 8. The Friday evening program also features three $103,674 divisions of the Champlain Stakes for two-year-old trotting colts in Races 2, 4, and 6.
To view the entries, click here.
(OSS)