Ontario’s exciting three-year-old pacing colts will show off their skills at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday evening in a pair of $40,000 Gold Eliminations.
Guelph resident Gregg McNair will harness three colts in the contest and is hoping that Hard To Mach, Lucky Jet and Secretsoftheknight can all advance to next week’s $130,000 Gold Final in this season’s tough sophomore pacing colt division.
“They are three nice horses to have,” says McNair. “But it’s a tough year to have them in, there are a couple of really stud ones in there. Those two, Michaels Power and Warrawee Needy, could compete with three-year-old colts anywhere. They are top of the line colts; a notch above the rest of them I think.”
Both Lucky Jet and Secretsoftheknight will the face division’s heavyweights in the second elimination, Warrawee Needy from Post 2 and Michaels Power from Post 4. Lucky Jet will line up between the expected favourites and McNair is looking for an improvement on the seventh-place result the colt logged in the July 21 Canadian Breeders Championship at Mohawk.
“The other night he shied away from the gate,” explains the horseman, who conditions Lucky Jet for breeder Ciara Stable of Willowbrook, IL, Michelle Crawford of Cazenovia, NY and Edward Kollross of Dubai, UAE. “He likes to leave pretty good, but he got away at the back.”
Prior to the Canadian Breeders start the long-legged youngster had scored a 1:50.3 victory in an overnight event at Mohawk and McNair hopes the son of Jeremes Jet and $287,851 winner My Metallica returns to that form in his Gold Series debut. The colt earned the promotion to the Gold Series after scoring one win and one second in the first two Grassroots events of the season.
Secretsoftheknight will start from Post 7 in the seven horse elimination and McNair expects another consistent effort from the son of Mach Three and $118,428 winner Docs Reward. Through 10 sophomore starts last year’s Grassroots champion has amassed two wins, three seconds and two thirds for earnings of $202,150.
“He trained back like he was going to be a nice colt, and he has been,” says McNair, who trains Secretsoftheknight for delighted owners Tony Lawrence of Hanover, Len Gamble of Etobicoke, John Newell of Waterloo and Graham Hopkins of Chesley.
In the first Gold Series event of the season Secretsoftheknight was third in both his June 30 elimination and the July 6 final at Georgian Downs, finishing behind Michaels Power and Piston Broke in both races. He heads into Saturday’s test off a runner-up finish to Michaels Power in the Canadian Breeders Championship, and McNair is hoping he is not coming down with a bug that saw stablemate Hard To Mach miss the Georgian Downs Gold Final.
“He was all out to be second the other night,” notes McNair. “He raced good, but I don’t think he’s as healthy as he could be either.”
Hard To Mach finished second in his June 30 Gold Elimination, but the night of the final did not have his usual pep during the warm-up so McNair and his staff checked the colt’s temperature when he returned to the paddock. Just slightly elevated immediately after the warm-up mile, the temperature continued to climb through the evening, so McNair withdrew the youngster from the race.
With treatment and a two-week rest the son of Mach Three and $302,749 winner Angel In Disguise was ready to rumble in last week’s Canadian Breeders Championship and logged a fourth-place finish for owners Lindsey and Connie Rankin of Lexington, MI.
The Rankins and Maurice Goldschmidt taught the colt his early lessons and raced him through much of his freshman season, sending him to McNair last September. In 10 freshman starts the pacer posted one Gold Elimination win and finished third in the season ending Super Final, banking just over $100,000.
“He was getting sick and they thought maybe it was from trucking, but we’ve had trouble with him too,” reflects McNair.
Hard To Mach will make his second sophomore Gold Series start from Post 6 in the first elimination, which features just six horses. The top five finishers from each elimination will return to Mohawk Racetrack for the second $130,000 Gold Final of their 2012 campaign on Saturday, Aug. 4.
Post time for Mohawk Racetrack’s Saturday evening program is 7:10 p.m., with the three-year-old pacing colts battling in Races 2 and 3.
(OSS)
To view entries for Saturday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Saturday Entries – Mohawk Racetrack.