Trainer Barry Treen will unload two freshman pacing colts at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday evening and the Rockwood resident is hoping that both DBS Rosco and Windsong Joker can earn a share of the $216,000 in Grassroots purse money up for grabs at the Campbellville oval.
DBS Rosco will make his second Grassroots start from Post 3 in Monday’s eighth race, while Windsong Joker makes his third Ontario Sires Stakes appearance from Post 7 in Race 10. Windsong Joker heads into Monday’s event off an impressive win in the Aug. 6 Battle of Waterloo Consolation at Grand River Raceway, and both Treen and owner Len Gamble of Etobicoke have high hopes for the grey son of Jeremes Jet.
“He was very, very nice right from the word go,” Treen explains. “We always knew he had something above the others. He always had a good attitude, he was a professional horse I guess is the best way to put it.”
Windsong Joker made his career debut in a two-year-old event at Mohawk on June 25, and sprinted home to a 1:55.3 victory. In the July 4 Grassroots season opener at Flamboro Downs the gelding returned to the winner’s circle with a 1:56.2 effort.
At Kawartha Downs in the July 21 Grassroots contest Windsong Joker came up with a sub-par sixth-place performance and an early break in the Battle of Waterloo eliminations at Grand River Raceway relegated him to the consolation, but Treen says the gelding is poised for another strong effort on Monday.
“He didn’t race good at Kawartha, that’s his only ever bad race. He just wasn’t himself that day and the results show it,” says the horseman. “The other day at Grand River we were thrilled with how he raced. He raced very tough. We expect big things from him.”
A $20,000 purchase from last fall’s Canadian Yearling Sale, Windsong Joker boasts a record of three wins and earnings of $38,320 through his first five starts. The half-brother to $318,597 winner Misty Moonstone will be looking to add to that tally on Monday in a tenth race contest that will see him flanked by former Grassroots division winners Classic Gent at Post 6 and State Of Euphoria at Post 8.
DBS Roscoe will be looking to collect his first share of a $24,000 Grassroots purse from Post 3 in the eighth race and Treen is hoping the son of Santanna Blue Chip logs another positive chapter in his early racing education.
“He’s a little colt, his birthday is in the first part of June,” says Treen of DBS Rosco. “He was on the same program as Joker, but around the first part of June, middle of May, I trained them in 2:08 and then had them checked over to make sure everything was fine and his knees were still not developed. So I backed off with him and gave him an extra six weeks.”
The colt, a $16,000 purchase by Gamble out of the Canadian Yearling Sale, made his career debut at Grand River Raceway on July 16, finishing fifth, and then made his Grassroots debut at Kawartha Downs on July 21, making an early miscue and finishing out of the action.
DBS Rosco heads into his second Grassroots test off a ninth-place effort from the outside Post 8 at Flamboro Downs on August 3, but Treen is hoping he comes up with a stronger effort on Monday.
“I think he’s going to learn to do something,” says the trainer of his second-stringer. “What I always liked about him, he always had a good attitude.
“We expect a lot more from Joker than we do from Rosco, but he’s in the developing stages and if he picks up money we’ll be really happy with him.”
DBS Rosco faces a tough field of eight in the eighth race. Former Gold Series competitor Panongahela starts from Post 2 and Grassroots division winner Santanna One gets Post 5.
The two-year-old pacing colts will battle in Races 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on Mohawk Racetrack’s Monday evening program, which gets under way at 7:10 p.m.
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To view entries for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Entries – Mohawk Racetrack.