Rene Bourassa's two-year-old pacing colt has already won a race, but heading into the Gold Series season opener at Mohawk Racetrack on Sunday the Fergus horseman is worried that L H Remachable will not be good enough to stand among the best in Ontario this summer.
"At this time of year it's a big, how do you say it? We will find out. That's where we are at," says Bourassa, searching for an English word to sum up the hope and doubt he and all trainers of two-year-olds experience before the first Ontario Sires Stakes race. "This is his first big test, but he had a good test last Sunday. He didn't want to let the other horses pass, he fought."
In a two-year-old contest at Mohawk Racetrack last Sunday, July 6, L H Remachable carved most of the fractions in the 1:55 mile and fought hard down the stretch to earn the quarter length win over Lucky Herb and Medoland Glenno. In spite of the Mach Three son's impressive accomplishment, Bourassa came away from the track worried that a colt in another race seemed to do things much easier.
"To me, the other horse looked better because he was racing the same night and he win in 1:55.1 pretty easy," explains the trainer. "My horse had to hang on tough to get the win. The other one looked a little more comfortable at the end."
That colt was Medoland Machoman, and the two winners will go head-to-head this Sunday in the last of three $40,000 Gold Eliminations, with Medoland Machoman starting from Post 6 and L H Remachable drawing the outside Post 9.
"This colt hopefully can have a pocket trip," speculates Bourassa, who trains L H Remachable for his wife Kim Bourassa of Fergus and M & S Racing Stable Inc. of Rockwood. "Hopefully he can qualify this time - he'll have to try hard - and we'll hope to get a better hole in the Final."
A $27,000 acquisition from the Forest City Sale last October, L H Remachable was the only yearling in Bourassa's barn last fall, so after teaching the colt his early lessons the trainer handed him off to Guelph resident Duane Marfisi. Marfisi continued the colt's education from January through May, and Bourassa has high praise for the trainer's efforts.
"Dewey (Marfisi) did a great job for us. I've got a lot of respect for him," says Bourassa. "As soon as you talk to him, you know, he's so mellow, and that's the way you've got to be with babies. He does an awesome job. So far it was a piece of cake for me to do the rest of the work."
Bourassa and his partners Murray Cox and Sharon Roden Cox normally stick to claimers and older horses, but the demand for horses in Ontario has been so brisk they decided to take a chance on a yearling last fall.
"The business is so tough right now, not much claimers around, last fall I had only four horses in my barn and I said to Murray, 'We should go to the sale and try to get something,'" recalls Bourassa. "And I think it's a decent one right now."
L H Remachable will try and keep Bourassa's hopes up from Post 9 in the ninth race at Mohawk on Sunday, with the other two $40,000 Gold Eliminations rolling up behind the gate in Races 5 and 7. The top three finishers from each elimination, plus one fourth-place finisher drawn by lot, will return to the Campbellville oval on July 20 for their first $120,000 Gold Final. Post time for Mohawk Racetrack's Sunday evening card is 7:30 pm.
To view Sunday's entries, click here.
(OSS)