Broadies Song heads into Saturday night’s Gold Eliminations atop the three-year-old pacing colt standings, and trainer-driver Rick Zeron is expecting the gelding to
treat Mohawk Racetrack fans to another strong performance.
“We’re looking for big things from him this weekend,” notes Zeron, who conditions the pacer for breeder Stephen Scarff of Halifax, NS and Turnkey Stables of Hamilton, ON.
After the gelding’s Gold Final victory at Georgian Downs on July 10, Zeron, Scarff and the members of Turnkey Stables looked at the sophomore pacing colt schedule and decided to skip the Canadian Breeders Championship in favour of a mini-vacation for the son of Camluck and Hawaiian Dancer. While his peers battled in the July 17 elimination and July 24 final of the Championship, Broadies Song was enjoying a little extra paddock time and a relaxed work schedule.
“We gave him two weeks off. We turned him out for a couple of days and let him have some fun,” notes the Oakville, ON resident. “I trained him today (Tuesday) and he went a pretty good mile. I went a quarter in :25.3 with him.”
While high speed has always been part of the gelding’s repertoire, Zeron says it took the youngster a fair bit of time to learn to harness that speed. Before he arrived in Zeron’s barn last October, Broadies Song had attempted to qualify three times and made breaks in all three outings. The fractious youngster made a fourth break the first time Zeron attempted to qualify him, and when he finally laid down a flat line — on Oct. 19, 2009 — Zeron opted to quit on a high note and turned the youngster out until January.
“He’s kind of special to me,” admits the horseman. “He was kind of a difficult little creature to deal with, and we got him figured out.
“We got him sorted out a little bit last November,” Zeron explains. “Then he got off the beaten trail earlier this year, but we got him back on track, and he’s just been phenomenal his last few starts.”
Zeron says the key to the gelding’s recent success — two wins and two seconds in his last four starts — has been a relaxed attitude and willingness to hand control of the accelerator over to his driver.
“I knew he could fly, it was just harnessing his power. He was trying to go too fast,” recalls the trainer-driver. “He’s calmed down quite considerable in his last few starts. He goes out and does his work now and enjoys his work.”
In 11 starts Broadies Song has accumulated three wins, three seconds and two thirds for earnings of $117,450. With a second in his first Gold Elimination and the Gold Final victory, the gelding has 75 points in the race toward a season ending Super Final berth, and will be looking to pad that tally from Post 5 in Saturday’s third race.
Among the colts hoping to prevent Broadies Song from scoring a second straight victory is Canadian Breeders Champion Big Bay Point, who will start from Post 3. Also on a mid-season roll, Big Bay Point has not been worse than third since mid-May and has five wins in his last six starts, his only loss coming to Broadies Song in the Gold Final.
The second $40,000 Gold Elimination, slated for Race 8 on Mohawk’s Saturday evening program, features two elimination winners from the Gold Series season opener — Stonebridge Tonic will start from Post 1 and BP Chimo gets Post 4. Canadian Breeders Championship runner-up Mach Dreamer will start from Post 3, while the third-place finisher Dalhousie Dave will line up at Post 6.
Post time for the first race at the Campbellville oval is 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night, with the three-year-old pacing colts squaring off in Races 3 and 8. The top five finishers from each Gold Elimination will return to Mohawk Racetrack on Aug. 7 for the second $130,000 Gold Final of the season.
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