Ontario’s three-year-old trotting colts open their Grassroots season on Friday night at Western Fair Raceway, and Thomas Porchak is looking forward to
watching Jayport Johnnykash test his mettle against some of the best trotters in the province.
“It’s going to be a very exciting night for me to see what this big guy will do,” says the Woodstock resident, who bred and owns Jayport Johnnykash. “All I want for him is to stay flat, don’t break, and see how he compares with the pack.”
Porchak and trainer Kathy Cecchin are keeping their expectations modest, as Friday’s outing will only be the colt’s third lifetime start. Since qualifying on May 6 at Grand River Raceway, Jayport Johnnykash has logged a fourth-place finish at Grand River on May 25 and a second at Georgian Downs on June 6.
“After that the trainer said maybe we should just take him back to Georgian Downs again,” notes Porchak. “But I said I’d spend a little money. I’d like to see how he’ll look with the rest of those guys.”
Jayport Johnnykash and driver Dave Wall will step onto the Grassroots stage from Post 2 in the third of seven $24,000 divisions, and Porchak is viewing the inside post with a mixture of delight and dread.
“He’s quite a big guy I’ll tell you. He’s awful close to 17 hands,” explains the longtime horseman. “I wouldn’t want him having the rail, he’s too big a horse for that, but I’m hoping he’ll handle the two-hole.”
The colt’s size is the reason he is heading into Friday’s event with just three starts under his belt. Porchak did not send the leggy trotter to the Cecchin barn until June of his two-year-old season.
“He was too big to race as a two-year-old, you’d only hurt him,” Porchak explains. “We were hoping to get a mark on him last fall, but the way winter set in, it didn’t quite work out.”
A half-brother to $743,188 winner Susies Magic, Jayport Johnnykash is the third foal Porchak has raised out of broodmare Kash Echo, a winner of $185,610 in her own right.
“I was looking for a good broodmare, and my eye just kind of stopped on her,” says the breeder of the 2003 mixed sale where he purchased Kash Echo. “She was in foal (to Dream Vacation) and the filly out of her, she won the Champlain Stakes when she was a two-year-old — Jayportcashforlife.”
Kash Echo is one of four broodmares the soon-to-be octogenarian cares for on his Woodstock farm, purchased 30 years ago as an antidote to boredom in retirement.
“When I was still working in town I bought the property so when I retired I’d have something to do and not sit in the house and be a couch potato,” says Porchak. “I didn’t buy RRSPs, I bought broodmares. They’re more fun and it gives me something to do.”
Porchak will be busy Friday heading to Western Fair Raceway for the 7:05 p.m. post time, and will be front and centre when Jayport Johnnykash steps out onto the half-mile oval in Race 5. The other six Grassroots divisions go postward as Races 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10.
Click here to view the entries.
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Good luck guys!
Good luck guys!