The two-year-old pacing and trotting colts will make their second Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots appearance tonight at two different Ontario racetracks. The pacers will headline Grand River Raceway’s card while Mohawk Racetrack will feature the trotters.
Both groups have one Grassroots test under their harnesses, and this is usually when you see movement between the Gold and Grassroots divisions depending upon performance in the first stakes of the season. Many horses that perform well at the Grassroots level will have a bump up to the Gold division.
However, that’s not happening among the rookie colts this season. In the trotting division’s first OSS Grassroots event of the year at Georgian Downs there were five divisions and all five of those winners have been entered at Mohawk. In fact, three of the winners, Call Me Richard, Hemi Seelster and Benvenuti, will face off side by side in the third of six $18,000 contests at the Campbellville oval.
Call Me Richard, by Muscle Mass, won his Georgian OSS event in 2:01. He’ll have Paul MacDonell up from the rail. Hemi Seelster, from the first crop of Holiday Road, will start right alongside in Post 2 for Steve Byron. He took his first OSS event in 2:00.4.
Right next to him from Post 3 is Benvenuti, who will be driven by trainer Eddie Green. The son of Muscle Mass was a three-length victor at Georgian Downs. Mandeville, a Majestic Son gelding that won at the Innisfil track in 2:01.1, has Post 9 in the opening division (Race 1). The other Georgian winner, Numbers Game in 2:01.1, has Post 3 in the sixth race with Mario Baillargeon up.
The pacers kicked off their Grassroots season at Mohawk earlier this month with six divisions. Five of the six winners have been entered back for the second Grassroots division tonight at Grand River. The only winner not entered was Make Some Luck who had been entered in the Gold last week at Grand River but scratched.
Two of the winners will square off in the first event (Race 1). Jeb, a Camluck colt with a 1:57.1 OSS win under his bridle, has Post 1 with Phil Hudon aboard. Bridge Of Stone, a winner in 1:57.3 in the opener, is at the opposite end of the starting gate in Post 9.
Another pair of winners from the first Grassroots will compete in Race 9. Nor Star Renegade, a winner in 1:57.1 to start the OSS year, has drawn the rail and will have Jody Jamieson at the lines. Half A Billion, a very speedy winner in the Grassroots opener in 1:54.3, has Post 7 and Mike Saftic at the controls.
The other winner from the first Grassroots event, by six lengths in 1:56.2, Single White Sock, has Post 4 in Race 10 for Scott Coulter. Grand River’s card will get underway at 6:30 p.m. with the Grassroots races featured in Race 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10.
Mohawk will follow less than an hour later at 7:25 p.m. The OSS trotters will be in the spotlight in Race 1, 2, 3, 6, 8 and 9.
To view the harness racing entries for Monday at Grand River, click the following link: Monday Entries – Grand River Raceway.
To view the harness racing entries for Monday at Mohawk, click the following link: Monday Entries – Mohawk Racetrack.
(OSS)