Vanderkemp Discusses His CBC Elim Starters

Published: July 12, 2012 01:43 pm EDT

Forty of the best Canadian-sired sophomores will take to the track to compete in their respective Canadian Breeders Championship eliminations this weekend at Mohawk Racetrack.

Trainer/driver Mike Vanderkemp will send two sons of Kadabra postward on Friday in the lone $68,168 elimination for trotting colts.

Reckon Im Ready is listed as the 9-2 second choice in the morning line. He has had a solid start to his three-year-old campaign for owners Patricia Stable, William Weaver III and Noel Daley. With two wins and four second-place finishes in eight outings, the bay has banked $81,250 in seasonal earnings.

“Last year, we had trouble early on with sickness through the winter,” Vanderkemp said about the colt, who was lightly raced as a rookie. “We only ended up racing him five times last year. He kind of missed a lot of [Ontario Sires Stakes] Golds. He only raced in one Gold and he did okay. This year, we are just taking our time with him and he has really turned a corner right now. He seems healthy and he’s racing well."

Reckon Im Ready will start from Post 4 for driver Keith Oliver. Vanderkemp has opted to drive Nowucit Nowudont, who has drawn Post 7.

“He is a bit of a handful to drive,” the horseman explained. “I’d like to handle him myself because he is very aggressive and sometimes hard to get to the gate. He has got a lot of talent. If I can keep his head on his shoulders, he is just as good as the other horse. He is very fast, but I just got to control him.”

Owned by Patricia Stable, the brown gelding is winless in three starts this year.

Both trotters will have to face another son of Kadabra in their elim, the 8-5 morning line favourite, Prestidigitator. Last year's Super Final winner is fresh off a lifetime-best 1:54 score in an OSS Gold final at Georgian Downs, a race where Reckon Im Ready was runner-up. But on Friday, the Dustin Jones trainee will have to overcome Post 10.

The top seven finishers will make it through to next week’s $159,058 final and will join Cold Certified, Il Mago and Knows Nothing, who all received byes.

Also on the program, two $35,651 eliminations will narrow down the field of trotting fillies. The top five finishers will advance to the $166,373 final.

On Saturday, pacing fillies will contest a single $63,660 Canadian Breeders elimination. The top seven finishers will advance to the final.

Cooking The Books, Jet Wash and Hope For Paddy will bring the field of pacers up to 10 as the trio received byes to next Saturday’s $148,540 dash.

All elimination winners may choose their post positions. However, no eliminations are required for the pacing colt division. With 10 colts entering, they will all advance directly to the rich $230,000 final.

The field boasts the following glamour boys: Hard To Mach, I Found My Beach, In Commando, Lucky Jet, Machapelo, Michaels Power, Secretsoftheknight, Thunder Steeler, Warrawee Needy, and Winbak Warrior.

All four Canadian Breeders Championship finals will be part of the stakes-filled program on July 21, Maple Leaf Trot Night at the Campbellville seven-eighths

First-race post time is 7:10 p.m.

To view the entries for Friday and Saturday at Mohawk, please use the corresponding links which appear below.

Mohawk Friday
Mohawk Saturday

(WEG)

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