Barbara List knows Rambaranonbroadway is in a tough Grassroots division on Sunday afternoon, but the Chatham resident is still looking forward to watching her homebred two-year-old pacing colt compete over the Dresden Raceway oval.
“I know we’re in with a few tough colts there,” says List, who shares ownership on Rambaranonbroadway with her son Darcy List of London. “But we hope he goes good on Sunday.”
Former Gold Series starters Western Heart and Medoland Machoman, who will start from Posts 2 and 5, and recent Grassroots division winner Sterling Chris, handicapped by the outside Post 7, are among the colts that List is concerned about. Working in her favour is the fact that Rambaranonbroadway landed the advantageous Post 1.
“He’s got the rail this time,” notes List. “He had the five and the six-hole before, and that wasn’t so good.”
Rambaranonbroadway heads into Sunday’s start off a sixth-place finish in the Sept. 13 Grassroots event at Woodstock Raceway, where he was saddled with Post 5. Two weeks earlier, the son of Rambaran and Kor Mel Onbroadway delivered a solid second from Post 2 in the Clinton Raceway Grassroots skirmish, and in his Aug. 14 provincial debut the colt eked out a fourth-place showing from Post 6 at Rideau Carleton Raceway.
With one second and one fourth to his credit, Rambaranonbroadway currently sits in a tie for twenty-first spot in the division standings with a total of 33 points, just 17 shy of the cut off for the top 16. Saturday’s contest is the second last Grassroots event on the freshman pacing colt schedule, so a strong finish over his hometown oval could extend Rambaranonbroadway’s season through to the Oct. 17 Semifinals.
The colt’s best effort came in his second lifetime start, where he took full advantage of Post 1 at Clinton Raceway and led a field of maidens to a 2:03.3 victory. Regular reinsman Robert Sparling, Jr. engineered the Clinton victory and will be back in the race bike on Sunday.
Darcy List trains Rambaranonbroadway, and his mother says the third generation horseman was always impressed with the colt, the second foal from Kor Mel Onbroadway.
“He thought we were going to have an OSS horse,” recalls List. “He’s a nice colt, nice mannered, really a nice colt.”
List says the young pacer does not bear much resemblance to his mother, a leggy mare who took a mark of 1:55.3 and earned $55,938 in her racing career, or to his older brother Maverickonbroadway.
“They are all together different. Maverickonbroadway is a stockier colt, and this one here is more slim,” explains the owner. “And his mother was a real big horse, he’s not big like her.”
The List family hopes Rambaranonbroadway’s size works to his advantage over their local oval and that he can leap up the Grassroots standings with a strong effort on Sunday.
In addition to Race 7, the two-year-old pacing colts are also featured in the third, fourth, fifth, eighth and ninth races on Dresden Raceway’s Sunday afternoon program. The half-mile oval’s first race swings in behind the starting gate at 1 p.m.
To view Sunday’s entries, click here.
(OSS)