Each division has been winnowed down to 20 horses and Friday’s Grassroots Semifinals at Mohawk Racetrack will further reduce the ranks of two-year-olds
to 10 finalists.
Trainer Jack Darling will harness one pacing filly in each of the $30,000 Semifinals, and the Cambridge resident is hoping both Twin B Elite and St Lads Morgan step up their game over the seven-eighths mile Mohawk surface.
“They are big fillies,” explains the horseman. “All season I thought, if I can just make it to the Semifinals at Mohawk, they’ll have a better chance. It was tough shipping them around to the smaller tracks, but they both came out of it all right.”
St Lads Morgan competed in all six regular season Grassroots events, winning her division at Georgian Downs on Aug. 13, and picking up one third, two fourths and one fifth for a total of 83 points and seventeenth spot in the division standings.
A daughter of Mach Three-Montana Bound, St Lads Morgan was a $65,000 yearling at last year’s Canadian Sale and is the fourth member of her family Darling has purchased and trained. The horseman says the young pacer can be a little quirky on the training track, but has not given driver Billy Davis, Jr. any trouble on race night.
“She is a little funny; when she’s training she doesn’t like to turn to go the training way,” explains Darling. “But in races Billy hasn’t had any trouble with her.”
St Lads Morgan will take aim on a top five finish from Post 2 in the ninth race on Friday, while her stablemate gets Post 6 in Race 7.
Twin B Elite is the third member of her family Darling has acquired, the first two being $200,000-plus winners Twin B Survivor and Twin B Legend. Darling had high expectations for the $80,000 yearling and all winter Twin B Elite appeared to be on target for an impressive freshman campaign.
“She was very good training down. I really thought she’d be a good Gold filly training down,” he says. “But when the pinch came she wasn’t quite good enough.”
After starting her career with a second-place finish in the Grassroots season opener, Twin B Elite took one stab at the Gold Series fillies, finishing fifth in her July 11 elimination at Mohawk. The daughter of Jeremes Jet and What An Attitude returned to the Grassroots in time for the Aug. 13 event, where she finished second, then missed two events due to sickness. She squeaked into the Semifinal off another runner-up showing in the last regular season event at Flamboro Downs on Sept. 14, finishing in a tie for the twentieth and final berth with 75 points.
Chris Christoforou will steer Twin B Elite in the first $30,000 Semifinal on Friday, and Darling is hoping both she and St Lads Morgan are ready to rumble.
“I trained them both pretty good today (Tuesday), so they are as ready as they can be,” says the owner-trainer. “They are going into it in good shape.”
Trainer Andy McCabe is also looking forward to racing Life Signature at Mohawk on Friday. The Life Sign gelding leapt up the point standings with a 1:55.3 victory at Flamboro Downs on Sept. 16, and McCabe is hoping that mile was just a first glimpse of the pacer’s talent.
“He just had a series of bad posts. We knew he was capable of going with the best in there, but racing circumstances dictated that he was only able to grind out seconds, thirds and fourths,” explains the Rockwood resident. “I think his potential is unrealized at this point.”
In five Grassroots appearances Life Signature posted one win, one second, one third and one fourth, for a point tally of 95 and seventeenth spot in the freshman pacing colt standings. The gelding’s post position luck improved for Friday’s Semifinal and he will start from Post 1 in the fifth race, with Oakville resident Rick Zeron in the race bike.
Bill Manes of Rockwood, Steven Papillon and Leonard Christopher of Acton, and Steven Brunelle of Grand Bend share ownership of Life Signature, who was a $30,000 yearling at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale, and has provided the group with more than just a $26,125 return on their investment.
“He’s got a lot of character this horse,” explains McCabe. “He’s a funny horse to watch.
“Natalie Baumlisberger, who takes care of him, she calls him the triangle,” he continues. “He stands like a triangle; it’s kind of hard to explain, he stands kind of underneath himself.”
In addition to rooting for Life Signature, the group will also be pulling for Red Carpet Dude in the other pacing colt Semifinal. Bill Manes shares ownership on Red Carpet Dude with Glenview Livestock Ltd. of Wallenstein.
“Bill bought two horses last year and they both made the Semifinal,” points out McCabe.
A two-time winner in Grassroots action this summer, Red Carpet Dude heads into Friday’s Semifinal ranked seventh, with 133 points. Shaun McDonald trains the Camluck gelding and Simon Allard will steer him from Post 5 in the eleventh race.
The two-year-old trotting fillies kick off Mohawk Racetrack’s Friday evening program at 7:10 p.m. and are also featured in Race 3. The two-year-old pacing colts will battle in Races 5 and 11, the trotting colts in Races 6 and 8 and the pacing fillies are spotlighted in Races 7 and 9. The top five finishers from each $30,000 Semifinal will earn a place in the Oct. 1 Grassroots Championship program, which features $100,000 finals for all eight Grassroots divisions.
Semifinal action continues at the Campbellville oval on Saturday night as the three-year-old trotters and pacers compete for their shot at a Grassroots title.
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To view entries for Friday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Friday Entries – Mohawk Racetrack.