By the time the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold eliminations are complete at Kawartha Downs on Tuesday, owner-breeder Craig Watkins figures he will know just what kind of a horse three-year-old trotting gelding Watkins really is
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On Saturday, Watkins will compete in the $100,000 Grassroots Final at Western Fair Raceway, battling for the championship in a division where he was only bested once in four regular season starts. Then, on Tuesday, the Striking Sahbra gelding will make the leap up to the Gold Series program for the first time, competing against five other colts for a berth in the November 2 Gold final.
“It depends on Saturday how good the season is going to be,” said Watkins, a resident of Newcastle, Ont. that bred and owns the gelding with his wife, Lynn, and trainer Dr. Peter Johnston’s Idylwood Stables Inc. of Peterborough, Ont. “We’re hoping for the best. We’ve got a good draw on Saturday night.”
Watkins and regular driver Mike Saftic will start from Post 2 at Western Fair on Saturday where they will be looking to improve on the third-place result they posted in the Semifinal round last weekend. The pair will then line up behind Post 6 on the Kawartha Downs starting gate Tuesday, and Watkins is hoping the gelding can give the Gold Series regulars a run for their money.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed that he can give them a bit of a go,” said the horseman. “It’s a competitive group this year, a little more than some years.”
Watkins was relieved to see that they would not meet up with the other locally-connected colt in the elimination round. Two-time Gold final winner Text Me, owned by Dave Boyle of Bowmanville, Ont., trainer Bob McIntosh of Windsor, Ont. and C S X Stables of Liberty Center, Ohio, will start from Post 3 in the first $40,000 elimination, while Watkins gets Post 6 in the second split. The top four finishers from each elimination, plus one fifth-place finisher drawn by lot, will advance to the $130,000 final.
“We know Dave Boyle,” noted Watkins. “And Text Me is a super-consistent colt. He’s definitely the horse to beat.”
The first foal from Watkins and Johnston’s former race mare Sarong Hall, a winner of $209,881 in her career, Watkins is the spitting image of his mother and his owners are hoping he can be just as successful.
“He looks for all the world like her. If you saw a finish picture of her and a finish picture of him, you couldn’t tell them apart,” said the horseman. “They are very, very much alike. The Kadabra (yearling) filly is quite a bit bigger, she looks a little more like Kadabra, but he is the spitting image of his mother.”
The only pall on Watkins’ exciting weekend of stakes action is that Judie Johnston will not be present to watch the trotter compete. Dr. Johnston’s wife and his partner in Idylwood Stables passed away on Oct. 10 after a long illness, and her presence will be missed as her family and friends watch Watkins make his first Gold Series start over his hometown oval.
“It would have been nice for her to see him race in the Gold,” said Watkins, regretfully. “She hadn’t been able to travel to see him race this year.”
On his way to a record of seven wins, two seconds, two thirds and earnings of $76,290 in 11 starts, the trotter has competed as far east as Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa and as far west at Hiawatha Horse Park in Sarnia this season. While Saturday’s final will bring an end to his Grassroots career, he can extend his OSS season by one more week with a top-four finish in Tuesday’s Gold elimination.
The first $40,000 elimination will go postward as Race 5 on Kawartha Downs’ Tuesday evening program, with Watkins and his rivals squaring off in Race 7. Post time for the Fraserville oval’s first race is 4:15 p.m.
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(OSS)