For the first time in its history, Rideau Carleton Raceway will host the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots

Championships.

The drama begins on Friday night with the eliminations for two-year-old trotting and pacing colts, geldings and fillies. A total of eight eliminations will take place, each with a purse of $30,000. The top four finishers in each will advance to the $100,000 finals to be held on Saturday, November 1. Three-year-old eliminations will take place on Sunday night.

Ontario Sires are big players in the wider racing world. Here are some OSS stories by the numbers.

There are 27 stallions represented tonight. 15 pacers and 12 trotters The total earnings of their two year old offspring is as follows:

Pacers: $4,436,077
Trotters: $5,097,881
Total: $9,523,958,293

A grand total of over $9.5 million! That’s bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of Cambodia, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mali or Malta.

The legendary stallion Camluck leads all pacing sires in two-year-old crop earnings with $996,812. On the trotting side, the newest sensation Kadabra has seen his two-year-old get earn $1,487,256.

So Long, Thanks For The Memories

The 2009 harness racing season marks the last time we’ll see a two-year-old crop by the great Ontario sire Astreos. The winner of the 2000 Little Brown Jug died in 2006 but left behind a legacy of stars that included the likes of:

Zooka - $1,307,193
To Helen Back - $1,138,905
Astronomical - $781,873
Isle of Patmos - $665,909
Lincoln Parke - $604,929

All told the offspring of Astreos earned a total of $33,605,035 and counting. They have amassed 471 wins so far and include one double gaited competitor

Mr. OSS Back To RCR

Dave Wall, known as Mr. OSS, will be competing at Rideau on Friday. The familiar nickname he carries is well earned considering his tremendous success in the Ontario Sires Stakes program over the years.

Wall is down to drive in two divisions starting with Boots N Hearts in Race 1 for two-year-old trotting fillies. Later in the card “Wally” also drives in the two-year-old pacing filly division with Vibrent Ally.

RCR/OSS Team Rises To Challenge

The staff at Rideau Carleton Raceway has worked feverishly to make this year’s OSS championships a success. Kudos go out to Marketing Coordinator Anne Davis, Racing Director Terry Lantz and Secretary treasurer Richard Gardner. Thanks also to our partners from the OSS program, in particular Leslie Waddell.

Post time for the first dash on Friday’s 15-race program is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

To view Friday’s harness racing entries, click here.

To view TrackIT prelim program pages for Sunday’s card, click here.

(with files from RCR)