Ron Burke likes what he sees in Seeing Eye Single, but it is what he sees for the colt’s future that is even better.
Seeing Eye Single is 4-for-4 this year and the 3-1 morning-line favourite in Saturday’s $250,000 Ohio Sire Stakes championship for two-year-old male pacers at Scioto Downs. Seeing Eye Single will start from post No. 2 with Chris Page, the track’s leading driver, listed in the sulky.
“I think next year he is really going to be a good colt,” Burke said about Seeing Eye Single. “He’s just a little immature and has fought soundness issues a little bit. Obviously, every time he goes to the gate he figures out how to win, so that’s a good sign.
“We’re not going to over-race him. I think when he figures it out, this is a good horse. I might race him at Delaware and I might race him one time at Lexington. That would be the most. And being honest, I could see me shutting him down after this race. At most he would have three more starts and very likely this could be it.”
Seeing Eye Single, a baseball term for a slow groundball that finds its way between infielders for a hit, reminds Burke of another late-blooming star -- one that has gone on to earn more money in purses than any horse in harness racing history.
“We say it every once in a while, and it sounds stupid, but he reminds me a little of Foiled Again,” Burke said. “I’m sure this is how Foiled was as a young horse. He wasn’t quite mature and he hadn’t quite figured it all out. That’s the idea.”
Seeing Eye Single, like Foiled Again, is a son of stallion Dragon Again. He is the first foal out of mare Shabalabadingdong and was purchased for $25,000 at last year’s Standardbred Horse Sale. He won his most recent race by a half-length, but the remaining three by a minimum of two lengths.
Scioto Downs is hosting eight $250,000 Ohio Sire Stakes championship for two- and three-year-old pacers and trotters on Saturday, making it the richest day on the state’s racing calendar.
Burke also has contenders in two-year-old female trotter Dashanay, two-year-old female pacer Baron Remy, and three-year-old female pacers Rosas Touch and Rosemary Rose.
Rosemary Rose started the year with five consecutive wins, but went off stride in her first Ohio Sire Stakes start and finished ninth. She was seventh in the next round of the sire stakes, but rebounded with a second-place finish in the next leg and a win in the final preliminary round to qualify for the championship.
“I really thought she was our best chance to win a final, and then that we might not even make the final, so I was thrilled to make it,” Burke said. “I’ve always felt she was the best filly in the state. All her bad miles have come in the sire stakes; other than that she’s raced very good horses and beat them. She’s a very good horse.”
Rosemary Rose, a daughter of stallion Foreclosure N out of Pantathlon, has won eight of 17 races this year and earned $114,277. She will start her sire stakes championship from post eight and is the 4-1 second choice behind Tyler George’s Pistol Packin Mama, at 3-1.
Rosas Touch, a daughter of The Panderosa-Touch Of Bogart who has won five of 20 starts this year, is 9-2 from post one.
“She is going to need a trip,” Burke said. “If she gets a trip she can go with them.”
Dashanay, who is 8-1 on the morning line, will start from post seven in the sire stakes championship for two-year-old filly trotters. She has one win in five races this season. Her victory, though, came at Scioto Downs, where she also has two second-place finishes to her credit.
“She is probably only one of a few of mine that’s overachieved this year,” Burke said about the daughter of Manofmanymissions-Eastern Starlet. “She just gets better and better. I think she is sitting on a real good mile. It’s at Scioto and she’s been good there. I’m looking for her to be good again.
“It would have been better to draw inside, but last year I learned one thing -- every race in Ohio was very competitive and very action-packed. You’ve usually got a shot. As long as you stay out and keep pulling the right line you’ll get your chance.”
Racing begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and the championships are races two through nine.
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.