Morning-line favourite and Dave Menary trainee Sintra is set to compete in the second of two $20,000 Confederation Cup eliminations on Sunday, May 14 at Flamboro Downs, starting from post six against five other competitors.

“He’s very versatile; he’s always been great on a half,” Menary said. “You always want to draw the best you can on a half-mile track. In his first start on a half last year, he set the track record at London (in a division of the Ontario Sires Stakes) for three-year-old colts.

“We train over a half, too. Prior to qualifying this year, he trained in a race bike over at Flamboro. I would like to start to the inside of the gate more, but where we start is not going to be where we finish.”

A winner of 10 races in 21 starts, Sintra has compiled $342,150 in career earnings for owners Brad Gray, Michael Guerriero, and Menary Racing LLC. The four-year-old Mach Three gelding from the Rocknroll Hanover mare Dancin Barefoot will be making his third start of the season following a prolific sophomore campaign consisting of eight wins in 16 starts and over $294,000 in earnings.

“He has been a consistent horse his whole life,” Menary said. “He’s just the right size; I think from the time he qualified last year until his last start, he probably didn’t lose 50 pounds. Hopefully we can use his strengths as assets.

“He’s very easy on himself throughout the week; he’s a super horse to race. He’s not impressive when he trains slow, but once you put the race bike on him, especially on race nights, he knows it's game time," continued Menary. "He can come on the front, he can come first up, he can race from second over, he can race any trip you give him. He has such a great turn of speed, but he can carry that for a ways.”

Last season, Sintra competed in the shadow of Ontario Sires Stakes superstar and 2016 Horse of the Year Betting Line. The two matched up three times towards the end of the year, with Sintra finishing second to Betting Line in a Gold Division at Georgian, fifth to Betting Line in the $300,000 Carl Milstein Memorial, and third to Betting Line in the $250,000 OSS Super Final.

“In the Sires Stakes there would always be a couple of divisions, but he always seemed to draw in against Betting Line,” Menary said. “I think we took as good a run at him as any good three-year-old last year, but he was too good a horse -- there were a couple of times I thought we had him, but he was a special horse.

“We also flew under the radar because we only raced regionally. We took him to Ohio (for the Carl Milstein) but he ended up getting bad luck and a bad trip that day in a race where he should’ve been first or second.”

Sintra’s two starts prepping him for the Confederation Cup were at Mohawk Racetrack, for a conditioned pace, and the Meadowlands, for the first leg of the Graduate series. He won both handily, standing out with his Meadowlands mile sweeping to a 1:49.1 victory by six lengths over Western Fame as the odds-on favourite.

“I was very impressed [with Sintra],” Menary said. “I was planning on getting my picture taken both weeks, but I didn’t necessarily know how it was going to play out. He hasn’t had any drawing luck and that continues here. But, getting ready for his first race at Mohawk, I knew he’d be good enough, but you could only qualify a horse so much.

“When he qualified at Mohawk, it was the fastest qualifier in Canada this year. Though, qualifying and racing are not the same thing. So I didn’t want to sacrifice him in his first start of the year; it was actually the first time Jody [Jamieson] took him off the gate, and he responded to it. That made me go to the Meadowlands with a lot of confidence.

“It is nice that the four-year-olds get to start their year against four-year-olds. But there’re a lot of good horses. Heading into this year, I was happy with how [Sintra] was coming back, but there won't be any easy starts. Even his race at Mohawk wasn’t a walk in the park. For his first race off the shelf to be against horses that have won the Preferred, it wasn’t an easy race.”

The remainder of Sintra’s stakes season is focused on four-year-old events, namely the Graduate and the Prix D’Ete, along with possible starts in the Jim Ewart Memorial at Scioto Downs, the Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial at Saratoga, and the Canadian Pacing Derby.

“Everything’s kind of frontloaded,” Menary said. “We’ll see how the year goes and see if we can get some invitations to some bigger races.”

The $175,000 (estimated) Confederation Cup final will be the centerpiece of Flamboro’s program of racing on Sunday, May 21. Sunday's elimination fields appear below.

Elimination #1
(Race 5)
(Post – Horse – Driver)
1 – Dr J Hanover – James MacDonald
2 – Magnum J – Jody Jamieson
3 – Mr Wiggle Pants – Doug McNair
4 – Daylight Rush – Jonathan Drury
5 – Check Six – Yannick Gingras
6 – Western Fame – Mark MacDonald

Elimination #2
(Race 8)
(Post – Horse – Driver)
1 – Stonebridge Beach – Stephane Pouliot
2 – Roll Away Joe – Yannick Gingras
3 – Easy Lover Hanover – Doug McNair
4 – Seeley Man - Mark MacDonald
5 – First Car – Phil Hudon
6 – Sintra – Jody Jamieson

To view the harness racing entries for Sunday at Flamboro, click the following link: Sunday Entries – Flamboro Downs.

(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Ray Cotolo)