Fans at Flamboro Downs will get a second look at the province’s two-year-old pacing colts this Friday evening when they kick off their Grassroots season
with five $24,000 divisions.
Many of the freshman pacing colts made their debut in the Bud Light Stakes at Flamboro on July 5, including Lyle MacArthur trainee Secretsothernephew. The full brother to $1-million winner Secrets Nephew finished a disappointing eighth, and MacArthur is hoping the young pacer can redeem himself on Friday.
“He disappointed me a little bit,” admits the St. George resident, noting that all of his horses have been battling sickness. “He trained a little better, so I’m hoping he’s a little better this week.”
MacArthur had cause for higher expectations heading into the Bud Light contest. After a solid qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack on June 22, Secretsothernephew delivered an impressive fourth-place finish in a June 28 overnight event at Mohawk, reaching the wire in 1:57.4 in spite of suffering interference at the three-quarter marker.
The June 28 outing was far from the first time Secretsothernephew had impressed MacArthur and his partners Linda Wellwood of St. George and Tammy Aspden of Caistor Centre. When the homebred son of Camluck-Table For Seven came into the barn last fall, the trio was not expecting to have an Ontario Sires Stakes starter this summer, but Secretsothernephew quickly demonstrated otherwise.
“He got hurt when he was younger and he’s only got one eye,” explains MacArthur. “He lost his eye when he was four weeks old, so he’s lived with it all his life.
“I didn’t really think he would race this year, with the eye and all, but he was a little natural right from the start,” the horseman adds. “He had a good gait and away he went.”
The veteran trainer-driver is still on the fence about the length of Secretsothernephew’s freshman career. He is not a fan of over-racing two-year-olds, as evidenced by Secrets Nephew, who made just one start in his freshman season.
“The big thing about racing two-year-olds, I find, is all of a sudden September comes around and they’ve got 10 starts on their card and they’ve only made $6,000. To my mind they are better off being turned out than making that kind of money,” he explains. “I like to give them a little bit of experience, a few starts, and then unless they are going to be a little better than the average horse, they get kicked out.”
At this point MacArthur is unsure whether Secretsothernephew is a little better than the average horse or not, but the colt has exceeded everyone’s expectations by such a large margin that he is willing to give the young pacer a few more starts to figure things out.
“He’s not his brother yet,” says the horseman. “But I think some day he might be all right.”
Secretsothernephew and MacArthur will test the Grassroots waters from Post 1 in the ninth race at Flamboro Downs on Friday, facing off against two other Bud Light starters and five who followed a different path to the provincial opener.
The other four Grassroots divisions are featured as Races 4, 5, 7, and 11 on the Dundas oval’s Friday program, which gets under way at 7:25 p.m.
(OSS)
To view Friday’s harness racing entries, click here.