Nickel And Dime entered Saturday night’s (Sept. 27) $75,000 CDN Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Grassroots Final for sophomore trotting colts on a three-race winning streak. The Mark Etsell trainee continued his run of luck at Woodbine Mohawk Park, but it required a gritty stretch drive and a lifetime best 1:53 performance from the 7-5 favourite.
The Resolve—Parkhill Nocredit gelding surged late in the lane to edge Pierre In Paris by a neck in the night’s eighth race. Rising Interest rounded out the trifecta.
“We bought him online and I was just expecting a prospect horse, to be honest, but I trained him up and he needed some equipment adjustments,” Etsell said in the winner’s circle. “He came out of a top stable, so I wasn’t expecting a lot. I just changed some rigging and shoeing. And he’s just went forward.”
Nickel And Dime started his three-year-old campaign in the barn of Matt Bax. The homebred finished off the board in two of three Grassroots legs before changing barns. Purchased in July by the partnership of Frank and Gennario Lamacchia, Tony Miceli and Deanmar Sons Stable, the gelding was turned over to Etsell, and he has flourished. Prior to the Grassroots tussle, Nickel And Dime captured four of six attempts. He lined up behind the starting gate Saturday as the divisional points leader. He finished as Grassroots champion.
“He’s very versatile,” Etsell said. “You know, when he was racing for them, he was always coming off the pace. So, I mean, we’ve raced him a couple times up front now and he’s responded well.”
When the gate folded, second choice Flanagan Sunshine and Phil Hudon fired from post six. Travis Henry and Nickel And Dime, starting to their outside in post seven, followed the early leaver and took command on the way to a :27.1 opening panel. Racing to the half, Trevor Henry would move Pierre In Paris from fourth and brush to the lead, pocketing the morning line favorite and clicking off a :56.2 half. Travis Henry would sit until midway through the second turn before moving off the rail and beginning his assault on the leader.
“He was kind of getting mad in the last turn, because he’s the kind of horse once you let him get going, then he doesn’t like when you grab into him too much,” Henry said. “So, Trevor kind of came fast and I had to let him go, and then he was getting mad. So, I was just making sure that he was going to get away. But, you know, that horse keeps coming all the time. So, he made my job easy.”
It was a battle of Henry versus Henry in the stretch, as the persistent Pierre In Paris matched strides with Nickel And Dime through the lane. Etsell’s trotter narrowly separated himself from the challenger in the final strides to capture his fourth consecutive. The victory was the first career Grassroots final score for Henry, and the second win of the night for Etsell, who also conditioned freshman colt trotter L P Bay.
“Oh, it’s great,” Henry said of the win. “You know, Mark’s been so great to drive for, and the horse has been good. So, yeah, he’s been really good to me since I’ve been driving here. So, it’s awesome.”
Bred by Bax Stable and Marshall Bax, Nickel And Dime returned $4.60-$2.90-$2.60. The victory is the fifth in 17 seasonal starts and seventh career triumph. The time shaved a full second off his previous best. The Grassroots final score pushed the trotter’s seasonal bankroll to $102,666. Nickel And Dime has career earnings of $128.021.