When Cayenne Turbo lines up behind the starting gate at Rideau Carleton Raceway on Friday night, the three-year-old trotting colt will be carrying more than just driver Gord Brown in his race bike.

The young trotter will also be carrying the memory of Ottawa horseman Lyle Anderson, who passed away just over a year ago in a plane crash near Lexington, KY. Although Anderson never got to see Cayenne Turbo race, his family will be at Rideau Carleton Friday and trainer Kevin Thomas hopes the Angus Hall son rises to the occasion.

"I'm hoping he can do well there," says Thomas. "It's been kind of tough. He's good enough to get into the three-year-old Finals, but isn't quite good enough to do real good. I feel like we've put up a lot of starting fees and aren't getting much return.

"I was kind of hoping for a Hollywood ending with this horse," he admits.

Anderson purchased Cayenne Turbo out of the 2005 Lexington Select Sale for $50,000 US. As a two-year-old he made five starts - four in top class stakes company - and posted one third, one fourth and one fifth-place finish for earnings of $12, 249. This season the colt has a record of two wins, three seconds and two thirds in 15 starts for earnings of $46,472.

In the Gold Series season opener at Mohawk Racetrack, Cayenne Turbo finished third in his elimination, but only the top two colts advanced to the Final. In the Goodtimes Stake at Mohawk he finished second in his elimination and sixth in the Final. In the second Gold Series event he finished third in an elimination that broke the Kawartha Downs and Ontario Sires Stakes record, and then came back with a disappointing eighth in the Final.

After four starts in overnight company at The Meadowlands in New Jersey and Yonkers Raceway in New York, Thomas entered the colt in the Yonkers Trot and, once again, Cayenne Turbo advanced out of the elimination with a fourth-place effort and then finished out of the money in the Final. Returning to Mohawk the colt finished fifth in a division of the Simcoe Stakes and then suffered through a tough trip from Post 10 in his most recent outing.

"That last start (Sept. 16) was kind of a tough one," says Thomas, who shares ownership on Cayenne Turbo with the Anderson family's River Ridge Farm of Ottawa and Glenn Bechtel of Kingston. "He's had about a dozen starts at least and he hasn't had maybe one good trip in all that."

Cayenne Turbo recorded his personal best 1:54.4 at The Meadowlands on Aug. 1, and Thomas would love to see the colt Anderson called the 'hot dog horse' deliver a big mile over his friend's hometown oval.

"Lyle used to always say he's like a hot dog," recalls the Lexington resident. "He's long and short legged for his length and has that look about him, that hot dog look."

Cayenne Turbo's short legs will propel him around Rideau Carleton's five-eighths mile oval from Post 4 in the third $38,103 Gold Elimination. Among the colts he will face on Friday are Canadian Breeders Champion Guilford from Post 2, and Kawartha Downs and Ontario Sires Stakes record holder San Pail from Post 3.

Post time for Rideau Carleton Raceway's Friday evening program is 6:30 p.m., and the three-year-old trotting colts will battle in Races 2, 5, and 8. Cayenne Turbo and his peers will be looking for a top three finish to earn their way back to the Ottawa oval for the Sept. 28 Gold Final.

(OSS)