Ontario’s high speed sophomore pacing colts will battle in one $40,000 Gold Elimination at Western Fair Raceway on Saturday evening and trainer Gregg McNair is

hoping Stonebridge Tonic can earn his way into the final in spite of landing the outside Post 7.

“Post position isn’t as big a deal for him,” says McNair, who conditions the colt for his partners Artana Stables of St. Thomas, ON, breeder Angie Stiller of Arva, ON, and Leonard Gamble of Etobicoke, ON. “He just needs to be covered up and have some flow, and then he’s an awful nice horse.”

Stonebridge Tonic will get the driving services of McNair’s son Doug, who currently sits atop the Western Fair Raceway driver’s standings and ranks second on the Ontario Sires Stakes circuit. The young McNair will be looking for an off the pace trip for Stonebridge Tonic, needing to best just one colt in the nine-horse field to earn a return trip to the London oval for the Nov. 6 Gold Final.

“If you overdrive him you’re in trouble. If you under drive him you have a much better chance,” explains the veteran trainer. “In a hole he always seems to be looking for room, but if you get him out, he’s not.

“There will be horses in that elimination, and he may be one of them, wishing they had a little more room,” adds the Guelph, ON resident. “We’ll get what we can. I hope he gets qualified for the Final.”

Through the first four Gold Series events Stonebridge Tonic has tallied one win, one third, one fourth and one sixth in elimination action and one third, one fourth and one sixth in Gold Final competition. The steady son of Camluck and 100 per cent producer Glacier Express has banked $158,845 for his owners this season while visiting the winner’s circle just two times in 18 starts.

Stonebridge Tonic prepped for the last Gold event of the season in an overnight contest at Woodbine Racetrack on Oct. 23, finishing sixth over a sloppy racing surface rated one second slower than normal.

“We’ve raced him a lot lately,” notes McNair. “We won’t do much with him in between trips.”

With his consistent Gold Series results, Stonebridge Tonic has already secured his berth in the season ending Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack on Nov. 13. McNair says current plans are to race the youngster through the remainder of 2010, then give a new ownership group an opportunity to acquire him out of a mixed sale in January.

“He’ll be a high end horse this next year I think,” speculates McNair. “I’ve had all the Camlucks out of that mare — Stonebridge Breeze ($122,923), Stonebridge On Ice ($289,300) and Stonebridge Tonic — all three of them were nice horses.”

While reigning Gold Final champion Twin B Warrior is absent from Saturday’s Gold Elimination field, there is plenty of talent among the nine competitors. Two-time Gold Final winner Mach Dreamer will be looking to reclaim his title from Post 5, while Canadian Breeders Champion Big Bay Point starts from the advantageous Post 1.

The three-year-old pacing colts square off in Race 4 on Western Fair Raceway’s Saturday, Oct. 30 program, which opens with three $7,500 divisions of the second leg of the Middlesex Trotting Series, and will be highlighted by the $167,000 Forest City Pace Final for older pacing mares. Last weekend’s eliminations were captured by former Ontario Sires Stakes competitors Voelz Hanover and Dreamfair Eternal, who will start from Posts 7 and 8 respectively in Race 10. Post time for Saturday’s exciting card is 7:05 p.m.

(O.S.S.)

To view Saturday’s entries, click here.