In 2014, Christopher Nicol purchased a yearling named Beast Mode for $5,000. Earlier that year, a $3,000 bargain named Hes Watching proved to be a tough contender in the Pepsi North America Cup before going on to set an all-age world record later that season.

Beast Mode will look to pose a similar threat this year, starting in Saturday’s Pepsi North America Cup eliminations at Mohawk Racetrack.

“He was sick during the sale and nobody was really interested in him because of it. He had a leg issue too at the time but it’s all good now,” said trainer Robert Reid. “Everything cleared up and he seemed like a solid horse.”

Despite lacking flash at the sale, his pedigree was enough to take a shot on. A short-lived racing career led to a new occupation for Gaias Gold in the breeding shed, with Beast Mode her first foal. The full brother to Gaias Gold is the widely-loved Golden Receiver, who banked over $2.2 million and took a record of 1:48.

Trained down for his two-year-old season by David Taff, he hit the board only once in seven starts with a third place finish in a New York Sire Stakes event at Saratoga. Though the son of Rock N Roll Heaven showed flashes of speed last year, he is hiding his talent no longer heading into the Cup eliminations.

Starting from Reid’s barn for his sophomore season, he made a surprisingly early return to the races at the end of January with an easy-going qualifier over Flamboro Downs. Beast Mode kicked his year off with a win over the half-mile oval a week later, setting the tone for what would become a 5-1-1 campaign from eight starts so far.

“He’s always had the speed but he was just too crazy, we had to find a way to gain some control. He had some issues with his mouth and feet and a couple other things but he just wanted to go,” said Reid. “If you couldn’t get to the front, he didn’t know how to sit in the hole and would climb over other horses.

“When I got him, we gave him time off and brought him back the right way. Never leaving, sitting behind a horse until the end of the mile and he caught on in terms of learning how to sit in a hole. I was there working in the barn, grooming him through last year and all that so I took over this season.”

Though most of his competition only returned to the races last month, Reid believes the early start is no disadvantage. Initially a devoted front-runner with little interest in anything else, it took time to teach the sophomore pacer a new way of racing.

“The extra starts have helped him come into his own and grow a little bit. We schooled him a couple times before starting him this year and we figured we might as well give him a shot. He’s learned how to relax after leaving the gate and in the mile. He’s just started getting better every week, mentally and in terms of speed.”

His progress is evident not only to his connections, but in his lines as well. With a mark of 1:51.4 taken over Mohawk last month, he comes into the elimination off a sharp 1:50.3 mile which earned him a game runner-up finish on June 2.

“There’s a few tough ones in the elimination; if he can do what he’s doing now, he can get the right trip and go with them. A few starts back when he went in 1:51.4, Sylvain said he could go in [1]:49. I hope he can go with them just the same.”

Beast Mode will face off against O’Brien Award winner Control the Moment, American invader Check Six and Lyons Snyder -- all posing a strong threat. Leaving from post five, he will team up with Trevor Henry in the fifth race on the card.

“I hope he lives up to what he’s shown us, everyone hopes their horse doesn’t throw a clunker in the race,” said Reid with a laugh. “He has enough speed he can get positioned well; he’s stronger the rest of the mile in a hole. Now it’s up to him to show us what he’s got.”

Beast Mode will start in the first of two North America Cup eliminations featured on the Saturday night card at Mohawk Racetrack, which also includes the Roses Are Red and Fan Hanover Stakes. The first race goes to post at 7:30 p.m.

2016 Pepsi North America Cup Elimination 1
(Post – Horse – Driver - Odds)
1 – Highlandbeachycove – Scott Zeron - 15-1
2 – Check Six – Yannick Gingras - 4-1
3 – Control The Moment – Randy Waples - 3-1
4 – Lyons Snyder – Sylvain Filion - 7-2
5 – Beast Mode – Trevor Henry - 15-1
6 – Betting Line – David Miller - 5-2
7 – Im Some Graduate – John Campbell - 12-1
8 – Ideal Rocky – Corey Callahan - 8-1
9 – Racing Hill – Brett Miller - 10-1

To view the harness racing entries for Saturday at Mohawk, click the following link: Saturday Entries – Mohawk Racetrack.

For a free, printable program for Mohawk’s Saturday card (courtesy of TrackIT), click here.

(by Hannah Beckett for woodbineentertainment.com)