Rookie colts, trotters and pacers, will star in Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots action over the next two nights at Mohawk Racetrack and Georgian Downs. On Friday night Mohawk will host the pacing colts and the following night the action shifts for Georgian for the trotting rookies.

A total of seven $18,000 divisions for the freshman pacers are slated for Friday night. This is the third Grassroots of the season for this group and two of the starters are looking to remain undefeated in this division as they come in riding two race winning streaks.

Single White Sock has been victorious in both previous Grassroots tests, at Mohawk and Grand River, winning his first lifetime OSS outing by more than six lengths in 1:56.2 early last month. He followed that up with a 1:56 two length score in the next event and will attempt the hat trick from post nine in race nine, the sixth OSS test of the night.

Barry Treen trains the son of Badlands Hanover for Len Gamble of Etobicoke, Ont., who purchased him for $24,000 at the Canadian Classic Sale. Bred by Tanya Prescott of Southwold, Ont., the colt is a half-brother to $1.1 million winner Ramegade Bruiser.

The only other colt two-for-two in the OSS thus far entered in Friday’s tilts is Half A Billion, who has drawn post three in the seventh and final division, race 11. Mike Saftic will be back at the lines behind the Sportswriter colt trained by Marcel Barrieau for breeder Hudson Standardbred Stable of Quebec.

Half A Billion’s only career starts have both come in the OSS and resulted in wins in 1:54.3 at Mohawk and 1:57.3 over Grand River’s half-mile oval.

Their contemporaries, the rookie trotting colts, have seen more action so far this season as Saturday’s outing marks their fifth Grassroots event. The colt with the best OSS record to date competing at Georgian is Mandeville, who has two wins and a second on his OSS resume thus far. His only off the board finish came on July 20 when he made a break.

Trainer Wayne Langille of Harley, Ont. co-owns the son of Majestic Son with Brett Burleigh of Paris, Ont. Mandeville has drawn post two in race six. Alongside him in post three is Top Dollar, a half-brother to Snow White, a very talented rookie trotter back in 2007 who made $1.4 million from just 19 lifetime starts.

Well known New York horseman Ray Schnittker and the Top Dollar Stable co-own the colt, who finished third in his Grassroots test on August 8 at Mohawk after starting in the Gold division initially.

Mohawk’s Friday night card kicks off at 7:25 p.m. with the pacing colts featured in races one, two, five, seven, eight, nine and 11 while Georgian’s first post is 7:15 p.m. the following evening featuring the OSS boys in races one, two, three, five, six and eight.

(OSS)