Prodigal Seelster has been within inches of victory in the last three stakes finals he has contested, and trainer David Menary is hoping the three-year-old pacing colt can finally claim a trophy in Thursday’s $130,000 Gold
Final at Kawartha Downs.
In last week’s elimination the Camluck colt delivered a 1:50.4 victory from Post 2, and he will make his bid for a second straight appearance in the Fraserville winner’s circle from Post 3 in Thursday’s seventh race.
“We’ve still got to beat a lot of nice colts, but we have a good post,” says Menary. “We’ll keep our fingers crossed that he keeps rolling.”
Heading into last week’s Gold Elimination, Menary admits he had some concerns about racing Prodigal Seelster 11 days after he went two heats in the Confederation Cup — winning his elimination and finishing third by a length from Post 8 in the final — but Prodigal Seelster seemed unaffected by the experience and bounced back easily from last week’s outing.
“After the Confederation Cup I hemmed and hawed about skipping the next Gold before deciding I was going to go,” recalls Menary.
“Last week I blew him out a really slow trip,” continues the Cheltenham resident. “This week he jogged Sunday and he trained today, and he trained probably the best he’s ever trained in his life.”
Menary conditions the colt for his father Larry Menary of Cheltenham, Denis Breton of Welland, Kenneth Ewen of Georgetown and Double Or Nothing Stables of Hamilton, and the group has been delighted with Prodigal Seelster’s recent efforts. The colt was a top performer at two, capturing six of 10 starts, including the season ending Super Final, but got off to an uneven start at three. After winning his Upper Canada Cup Elimination at Georgian Downs on May 21, Prodigal Seelster did not return to the winner’s circle until July 30 when he captured a Gold Elimination at Mohawk Racetrack.
“He started the year with a few ailments to deal with, and we couldn’t seem to get everything to line up at the same time,” explains Menary. “It seems like things are really coming together for him now.”
The July 30 victory came on the heels of a narrow loss to Camaes Fellow in the Canadian Breeders Championship at Mohawk — Prodigal Seelster finished third by half a length — and was followed by a defeat in the Aug. 6 Gold Final that saw archrival Mystician earn the win by a nose. Prodigal Seelster then captured his Confederation Cup elimination in a personal best 1:50.2, besting Mystician by two and a half lengths, and finished third in the final, one length behind winner Bestofbest Hanover and one-quarter length behind runner-up Mystician.
Menary would love to see Prodigal Seelster capture this week’s Gold Final, but knows the Jeff Gillis trained Mystician will be working hard to defend his title from Post 6.
“Mystician and Prodigal are a couple of the top colts, and Jeff (Gillis) and I are great friends,” says Menary.
“We race a lot of horses against each other and we play a lot of poker against each other,” he adds with a chuckle. “If I can’t win, I hope he wins.”
In addition to Mystician, driver Scott Zeron will also have his eyes trained on last week’s runner-ups Twin B Legend from Post 2 and Camaes Fellow from Post 8.
The three-year-old pacing colts will wage their third Gold Final battle in the seventh race on Thursday, Sept. 1, with Kawartha Downs sending its first race behind the starting gate at 4 p.m.
(OSS)
To view entries for Thursday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Thursday Entries – Kawartha Downs.