After missing the Grassroots Championship by just nine points, two-year-old pacer Brodys Scrapper will be looking to capitalize on his second opportunity at a post season pay cheque in Tuesday’s Grassroots Consolation at The Raceway at Western Fair District.

Through his six regular season Grassroots starts Brodys Scrapper posted one win, one third, two fourths and two fifths for 88 points and thirteenth spot in the point standings — the top 10 point earners advanced to the Sept. 21 Championship. The Mach Three son’s 1:56.1 personal best came in the Aug. 24 Grassroots event at Kawartha Downs and trainer Bud Sinclair of Stratford, ON is hoping the gelding is ready to match that effort from Post 2 in Tuesday’s tenth race.

“He trained super the other day. Hopefully he’s fresh and ready to go,” says Sinclair, who shares ownership of the gelding with his wife Lindsey Sinclair and Kenneth Bryant of Dorchester, ON.

The Sinclairs bred and raised Brodys Scrapper, who is out of their $192,922 winning mare Witness To Fame, and the trainer says the gelding is very much like his mother, who was a Grassroots winner at both two and three.

“Everything off that mare, they want to kill you when you start with them,” he says ruefully. “To train him down was a nightmare.

“It was real hard to get him to focus on stuff,” Sinclair continues. “I raced him in a bunch of maidens just to braven him up and he finally figured it out. He has tons and tons of speed; it’s just the mental part, he’s very tough on himself.”

Brodys Scrapper made his racing debut in the Grassroots season opener at Mohawk Racetrack on June 27 and has made eight more starts, scoring four wins, one third and $17,986 for his owners. After Tuesday’s Consolation, the gelding will wrap up his season in the Ontario Sired Autumn Series at Woodbine Racetrack.

“He’s got four more starts if he makes the final of the Autumn Series,” notes Sinclair. “He’ll have more starts than we’d really like, but the way the industry is right now you don’t want to pass up an opportunity to make money.”

The trainer is hoping a recent alteration to the gelding’s equipment will help Brodys Scrapper earn a pay cheque in the $20,000 Grassroots Consolation on Tuesday. In the last regular season Grassroots event, on Sept. 12 at Mohawk Racetrack, driver Sylvain Filion moved the gelding early and was unable to reapply the brakes once Brodys Scrapper reached the front.

“Once you start him up he doesn’t know ‘Whoa’ again,” explains Sinclair. “So I’ve changed his rigging a little bit this time.”

With a few equipment changes and a little maturity, Sinclair is also hoping Brodys Scrapper can follow in his mother’s footsteps and make a successful return to the Ontario Sires Stakes program as a three-year-old.

“I think next year he’s got a great future ahead of him,” says the trainer. “I hope he can step up a level, I know the speed is there, he just has to get the mental part.”

Among the challengers Brodys Scrapper will face in his last freshman Ontario Sires Stakes battle are two colts who finished ahead of him in the point standings. Major Homer finished in eighth spot and gets Post 6, while eleventh ranked Allstar Seelster will benefit from Post 1.

The two-year-old Grassroots Consolations will be featured in Races 1 through 6, 9 and 10; with the first $20,000 contest parading onto The Raceway at 4:05 p.m. Fans will have an opportunity to wager on a special $1,000 Pick 8 on the eight Grassroots Consolations.

(OSS)

To view results for Tuesday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Tuesday Entries – The Raceway at The Western Fair District.