This Saturday afternoon, Carl Jamieson will make the 10-minute drive from his Princeton, ON farm to Woodstock Raceway with a pair of two-year-old pacing colts, and the veteran horseman is hoping Riopelle and Western Heart are ready to make their presence felt on the Grassroots circuit.
Both colts started their season at the Gold Series level, but Riopelle fell victim to a virus in late July and Western Heart failed to make the Gold final in the first two events. As a result, Jamieson decided to take a crack at the Grassroots
program, and hopes the colts can step up with an impressive result at Woodstock.
"We'll see how they come out of this race," notes the trainer. "If they race goo we might go back to the Gold, or maybe we'll go to the next Grassroots and try to pick up another $10,000."
Jody Jamieson will steer both colts in their Grassroots debut, and the country's leading reinsman will open the afternoon aboard Riopelle from Post 3 in the first $20,000 division.
Riopelle, a son of Modern Art and $108,980 winner Feverish Hanover, heads into the race off a September 5 qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack -- his first appearance on the racetrack since he finished third in his Battle Of Waterloo elimination at Grand River Raceway on July 28.
Riopelle had to be scratched out of the final due to sickness.
"His legs all blew up in front and the fever set in his feet. I thought we were going to lose him," recalls Jamieson. "I thought he was going to founder, but he seems to be okay, he rallied round.
"He qualified good, so he should be ready for Saturday," adds the horseman.
Riopelle clocked a 1:59.1 effort in his qualifier last week, stepping home in :28.2. Prior to being knocked off the rails by sickness, the colt had logged a runner-up finish in the Gold Series season opener at Mohawk Racetrack and finished fifth in the July 20 Gold final, in spite of being handicapped by Post 9.
Jamieson shares ownership on Riopelle with breeder Dr. Robert Boyce of London, ON Matthew Kitchen of Princeton and Sherman Robblee of Woodstock, ON.
Three races later, Western Heart will make his Grassroots debut from Post 2. Since his June 29 debut in the Bud Lite Series at Flamboro Downs, the son of Western Terror has wavered between brilliant and disappointing for Jamieson and his partners, Thomas Kyron of Toronto, ON, Jeffrey Gillis of Guelph, ON and The Hastings Mill Inc. of London, ON.
Second in the Bud Lite in a snappy 1:57.1, the colt made a late break in the Gold Series season opener and finished ninth.
Two weeks later the youngster sprinted home to capture his Battle Of Waterloo elimination, but a second miscue squandered his chances in the $300,000 Final. Back at Flamboro Downs in the Gold Series, Western Heart finished fifth in his elimination,
but bounced back with an impressive 1:55.1 victory in the consolation. He heads into Saturday's skirmish off an eighth-place effort in overnight action at Mohawk on August 31.
"He's a small horse, a little horse," notes Jamieson. "I was going to go downtown with him again, but this is close to home,
and if he could go in the Grassroots and get a win in there, that would be fine."
Western Heart is among a handful of horses Jamieson is selling this fall in an effort to make room for the coming crop of yearlings. The colt's Gold Series efforts have only netted him five points in the race toward the Super Final, but a victory
at Woodstock on Saturday would launch Western Heart right into the hunt for a Grassroots Semifinal berth, giving any potential owners a shot at a lucrative return on their investment.
Among the colts Western Heart will face in his quest for Grassroots success are two time division winner In A Craze from Post 3, and his former Gold Series rivals Alexie Mattosie and Allamerican Extra from Posts 6 and 7.
First race post time for Woodstock Raceway's Saturday matinee is 1:00 p.m., with the two-year-old pacing colts set to square off in Races 2 through 8.
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