On Monday afternoon Grand River Raceway will host its annual celebration of the harness racing industry by featuring the province’s top two-year-old trotters and pacers.
The Elora oval’s signature events for freshman pacing fillies and colts, the $150,000 Battle of the Belles and $300,000 Battle of Waterloo, are the highlights of the matinee program, but the two-year-old trotting colts will warm up the crowd in the seventh race as they compete in the third $130,000 Gold Final of their campaign.
Sparky Gypsy missed the first Gold Final when he made a bobble in his elimination, but since then the Mr Lavec colt has been a model of consistency. In the July event at Mohawk Racetrack Sparky Gypsy finished second in his elimination and third in the final to champion Murmur Hanover and in last week’s Gold Elimination at Grand River the colt posted his first victory with a 2:01.3 effort.
“You know I didn’t think a half would really be his thing, because he takes a little time to find his rhythm out there, but obviously he did good in the elim,” says trainer Chris Beaver. “I think the way the trotting colts are this year, it may even work out on a half, you know, just coming from off the pace a little bit.”
Sparky Gypsy will be looking for another steady effort from Post 3 in Monday’s Gold Final and Anthony MacDonald will be back in the race bike. The Guelph resident has piloted the colt in his last three starts and will be hoping to deliver a fourth top three finish to the colt’s owners Beaver, Bill Manes of Acton, ON and Johanna Beaver of Delaware, OH.
The partners acquired Sparky Gypsy from breeder Hubert Wick last fall, just before the Warsaw, NY resident passed away following a brief illness. Beaver had trained the colt’s full brother Mr Escadar to earnings of $72,300 for Wick and the horseman was hopeful that Sparky Gypsy would share some of his elder brother’s positive traits.
“The other horse, he was an absolute natural. This horse is a late foal and he’s more of a grinder, he takes a little bit of time in the mile to find his rhythm out there. But they’re both nice horses,” says Beaver. “The other colt was a real nice horse in a different way. He was very fast right off the bat.”
Beaver says Sparky Gypsy has better manners than his sibling and has the size and scope to be successful in the Ontario Sires Stakes program.
“He looks the part,” says the horseman. “You really can’t fault him on size or conformation. He covers a lot of ground and seems to do it easy.
“He feels really good; he’s noisy, eats good, has a good attitude, likes to work. I can’t complain other than he’s a little studdy,” Beaver adds.
Beaver taught the colt his earliest lessons in Delaware, OH and then sent Sparky Gypsy to Florida under the tutelage of his father Charles. The colt returned to Ohio in May and Beaver prepped him for the Ontario Sires Stakes season opener with a pair of qualifiers at Scioto Downs in Columbus, OH. Sparky Gypsy finished third in his first outing on June 12 and then posted a 2:02.4 victory in his second qualifier on June 19.
Making his Ontario debut at Flamboro Downs in the June 29 Gold Eliminations, Sparky Gypsy was sitting fifth when he made a break heading for the halfway marker. Beaver returned to Scioto for a third qualifier on July 3, which the colt captured with a 2:03.1 effort, and then shipped back to Ontario for the second Gold Series event at Mohawk on July 16.
With a second in that elimination and third in the final one week later Sparky Gypsy proved he could compete with Ontario’s best and Grand River fans made him their top choice in last week’s second elimination. The colt delivered a three-quarter length victory in trademark off-the-pace style, and Beaver expects the winner of $45,600 will continue to improve as the season progresses.
“I think he’s going to keep getting better. He’s a late foal, a real late foal, I think he was born in June, so I really don’t think we’ve seen everything he can do yet,” says the trainer. “He’s got a lot of size — he’s probably, maybe just over 16 hands right now as a two-year-old — and he’s got a lot of length, and he has a huge stride.”
Sparky Gypsy faces a field of eight in Sunday’s $130,000 Gold Final, including the other elimination winners Sam Hayes from Post 2 and Creampuff Macdaddy from Post 8.
Parading onto the track for the seventh race, the two-year-old trotting colts will warm up the Grand River Raceway crowd for the Battle of the Belles Final in Race 9 and the Battle of Waterloo Final in Race 11.
In addition to the outstanding on-track action, Grand River Raceway serves up a full slate of fun-filled trackside activities for young and old. The activities begin at 12:30 pm, with the first race going in behind the gate at 1:30 p.m.
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To view entries for Monday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Monday Entries – Grand River Raceway.