Ontario’s talented three-year-old pacing colts will gather at Clinton Raceway on Sunday afternoon for their Grassroots season opener, and Robert Hamather is hoping Fiesty Flyer can carve out a spot among the province’s best in the coming months.
“We actually thought he was going to be a good colt (at two),” explained the resident of Exeter, Ont. “But he didn’t materialize what we thought he was going to, so we decided then the best is to just wait for him.”
In five starts last season --- two in the Grassroots program --- Fiesty Flyer earned just $1,200. In mid-September, Hamather and trainer Casie Coleman decided to wrap things up and give the pacer an opportunity to mature. They also made the decision to geld the youngster.
“We gelded him and he did grow up to be a lot different than he was before. He was pretty hard to manage,” Hamather noted.
The full brother to $319,196 winner A Fiesty Affair returned to the races in early May and it was immediately apparent that he had matured into a racehorse. Against non-winners of one race company at Flamboro Downs on May 13, the son of Camluck cruised to a 1:55 victory. In the same class at Mohawk Racetrack on May 20, Fiesty Flyer was second in a 1:51.2 mile and he returned to the Campbellville oval on May 28 with a 1:53.1 score from Post 10.
Hamather is hoping the gelding can find his niche among the top Grassroots colts this summer, following a trail blazed by another homebred in 2003. After being lightly raced at two, Tigerama captured five regular season Grassroots trophies, won his Grassroots Semifinal and finished fourth in the Grassroots Championship. The colt then went on to earnings of $1.6 million over the next seven years.
“I raced Tigerama like that, I raced him in the Grassroots, and it sure paid off because he got to be a great horse after his three-year-old year,” explained the long-time owner and breeder. “I think it’s a great place to start, and hopefully we are in the money there and carry on to be a good horse later in life.”
Fiesty Flyer will kick off his sophomore stakes campaign from Post 1 in the eighth Grassroots division, with regular reinsman Scott Zeron in the race bike. Among the seven colts the pair will face are four veterans of the provincial program and three newcomers, including Grey Huron Series winner Macktwowilldew from Post 6.
While Hamather is hoping Fiesty Flyer holds his own in the Grassroots field, the horseman has sent enough horses to the racetrack to be comfortable with racing’s uncertainties.
“I started back in ‘68 so I have been at it for a while. That’s why I keep my day-time job,” said the president of Northlander Industries, with a wry chuckle. “I’m going to be 75 in November, so I’ve been at it for a while.”
A total of 11 Grassroots divisions will go postward at Clinton on Sunday, with a total of $264,000 up for grabs. Among the 86 colts headed to the popular half-mile oval are last season’s No. 2 colt, Iwilldowhatido, who has drawn Post 2 in the sixth race, and the fourth-ranked R Gauwitz Hanover, who will start from Post 2 in Race 10.
The talented sophomore pacing colts will be featured in Races 1 through 11 on Clinton Raceway’s Sunday afternoon program, which gets underway at 1:30 p.m.
To view the harness racing entries for Sunday at Clinton, click the following link: Sunday Entries - Clinton Raceway.
(OSS)