Having smoked past 6-5 favourite Delmarvalous in its elimination for the $1 million Metro Pace, North America’s richest event for two-year-old pacers, Sportswriter seems ideally positioned to take home all the marbles
Saturday, September 5 at Mohawk Racetrack.
The Casie Coleman-trained juvenile, perfect in four lifetime starts, has the look of a superstar. From its first qualifying effort on July 13, Sportswriter has turned out one spotless effort after another, earning $105,196 thus far. In its first start in stakes company (the August 22 Nassagaweya Stakes), the colt stalked Delmarvalous throughout the mile and ran down its foe in the stretch in 1:50.4, a feat Sportswriter repeated one week later in its Metro Pace elimination with a :26.4 final quarter.
Coleman, who purchased Sportswriter from last fall’s Harrisburg yearling sale for $50,000, calls the colt “a dream come true." Coleman also said: "He’s just been an amazing horse from day one."
And by all accounts, Sportswriter slipped through the fingers of a number of inattentive buyers. “He was by far the colt I liked best in the sale,” Coleman said. “I love Artsplace babies, and he was just stunning, and his video was perfect – he was the whole package. I figured he would go for between $100,000 and $125,000.
“I had a buyer lined up, but Sportswriter went into the ring really late. It must have been 8:30 in the evening, and my buyer decided he wanted to go home. I asked if he wanted me to bid on the horse and he said 'no.' So, I just hung around, and when Sportswriter went into the ring it looked as if the hammer might fall at around $48,000 – so I stuck my hand up and got him. For a short time there I owned him myself. But Steve Calhoun called me shortly afterward and asked who I’d bought the colt for. He ended up buying 50%, and when I got home to Toronto I sold another 25% and kept a quarter share in him.
“Some people missed out on him, for sure, but it would be pretty easy to sell pieces of him now!”
Coleman’s faith in Sportswriter was immediately realized when she got the colt home. “I’ve been telling Steve Calhoun from the beginning that we have a real player here, not just your average colt.
“Right from as a yearling, he was relaxed and laid-back, easy to break, good-gaited … you’d think he was a five-year-old gelding, the way he behaves.
“He sleeps all the time. I almost thought there was something wrong with him, he spends so much time lying down, but that’s just him. The first time he went into retention, I figured he’d be keyed up, but we went to check on him around 11:00 p.m. and he was out cold, snoring, just like he does at home.”
The colt has also proven himself a surprisingly versatile youngster. “He has won it every possible way and been easy on himself each time,” Coleman said. “You can fire him out and then take a hold of him, which is amazing for a two-year-old. He won the last time from the nine hole, and I was thrilled with how well he came out of it. Though, I have to say I was thrilled to be able to pick his post position for the final and not have the nine hole for a change.”
Though Coleman says she couldn’t be any more pleased with Sportswriter at this point in his development, she’s aware that the Metro Pace represents the colt's biggest challenge to date, by far. “It’s a real nice bunch of colts this year,” she said. “We’ve beaten Delmarvalous twice, but I always want to know where he is – he’s a super-talented colt and I wouldn’t want to discount him at all.
“Malicious is unbeaten and a really nice animal, and Woodstock got started a little later than the others but is a big closer. I also like Bruce Saunders’ colt, Rock N Roll Heaven. There are a lot of heavy hitters in there.”
Sportswriter will leave from Post 3 in the field of 10, but any game plan will be left up to the colt's regular pilot, Mark MacDonald, Coleman says.
“I’m confident about whatever Mark decides to do. You can put together a game plan but it all changes as soon as you get behind the gate anyway. I’ll train him and Mark can drive him, and with any luck it all works out for us.
“It’s a dream come true just to have a colt in the Metro Pace, let alone one with a shot at winning.”
Sportswriter and nine rivals will go postward in the $1 Metro Pace on Saturday night at Mohawk, carded as Race 7 with a 9:40 p.m. (est.) post time.
As part of the Metro Pace festivities, broadcasters and handicapping experts Greg Blanchard and Mike Hamilton will be hosting a 'Talking Track' seminar this Saturday at Mohawk beginning at 6:00 p.m. Multiple O'Brien Award winning trainer Bob McIntosh, who has two colts (Rock Me Please and Epanephrine) in the Metro Pace final, will be the special guest.
Don’t forget that the Metro Pace will be televised nationally on The Score from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The show will also feature the $810,300 Shes A Great Lady Stakes, for two-year-old filly pacers, and the $685,000 Canadian Pacing Derby for the aged horses.
Click here to view Mohawk's harness racing entries for Saturday, September 5.
(With files from WEG)