Fritz Doubles Up In Grassroots Action
On Saturday night, two-year-old trotters invaded Hiawatha Horse Park for six $20,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions and driver Randy Fritz sat in the bike for a pair of victories.
Lukas Rossi and driver Randy Fritz dominated the fastest and final division on the card with a seven length victory in 2:00.
The post time favourite got away second behind Rogue Seelster (Tomas Dalborg), but was on the move before the first quarter pole in :29. Lukas Rossi posted the following panels of 1:00.3 and 1:31 before pulling away from the field for the win.
Make A Promise (Scott Zeron) was the runner-up and Strike A Light (Mark Williams) was third.
The Roadshow Hall gelding notched his third consecutive win in just three starts this season for trainer and co-owner Ron O'Neill and P C Wellwood Enterprises Inc. of Cambridge and Nancy Stephens of Woodstock, Ont.
Fritz picked up another win in a later division aboard Striker Ray. The Striking Sahbra gelding dominated his split after the odds-on favourite Quantum Victorius (Brad Forward) made an early miscue. He maintained at least a two length lead on the field before crossing the wire in 2:03.4 ahead of Senor Roberto (Robert Jenkins, Jr.) and C J Smoke (Aaron Byron).
The Rob Fellows pupil picked up his first lifetime score in six starts for the S S G Stables of North Boston, New York.
In the second split, Tymal Icon rallied from off the pace to upset in 2:01.3 and give driver Brad Forward one of his four wins on the card. The son of Angus Hall, who is trained and owned by Murray Waples of Port Severn, Ont., posted a quarter-length victory over O Grady (Wayne Henry) and Hour Lavec (Chris Beaver) in his first lifetime start.
The Angus Hall colt, Agusto (Dave Wall) also broke his maiden in the following division for trainer John Bax and owners Bob Anderson of St. Thomas and Gwendolyn and Ronald Bowman of Nobel, Ont.
Agusto advanced to the lead from Post 2 as the field past the first quarter pole and never looked back. The bay colt pulled away from the field winning by four and a half lengths in 2:00.4. The favoured Kingsbury (Stephen Davis) came on for second after going three-wide at the third quarter mark and the early pacesetter Northern Spirit (Don McElroy) finished third.
Oaklea Rush, also sired by Angus Hall, notched his second consecutive win in three starts in his division for trainer and driver Riina Rekila and owner Esa Lahtinen of Campbellville, Ont.
The bay trotter used front-end tactics to get the job done in 2:01.1 by half a length. Striking Lightning (Stephen Davis) came on for second with Northern Illusion (Brad Forward) finishing third.
Pembrook Street lowered his mark to 2:01.1 in the first division. Driven by Dale Fritz, the Duke Of York gelding led the field through panels of :29.1, 1:00.4 and 1:31.2 before putting away challenger Dashing Earl (Dave Wall) in the stretch, winning by three lengths. V Star (Brent Belore) was third.
The George Henry trainee is owned by Michael Wassilyn of Toronto, Ont. He now sports a record of three wins and three seconds in six starts with earnings totaling $49,850.
To view Saturday's results, click here.