FRASERVILLE, ON — Ontario Sires Stakes action arrives at Kawartha Downs on Saturday night with six Grassroots divisions for the three-year-old trotting colts.
Peterborough’s John Bax will send two young trotters to the start and has high hopes for both after they delivered solid performances over the Kawartha oval on May 30.
Northern Beau will start from Post 7 in the second race and Bax expects the Balanced Image son to have a more successful outing than he did in the Grassroots season opener on May 18 at Woodstock Raceway where he made an early break and finished a distant seventh.
“He didn’t really like Woodstock, the track was hard, so we made a shoeing change to protect his feet a little more and he qualified good,” says the 2001 O’Brien award winning Trainer of the Year. “He raced good last week so I’m confident he’ll be all right.”
Northern Beau finished second by a quarter length in a 2:04.2 qualifier at Kawartha Downs on May 23 and was a fast closing fifth in a non-winners of two races contest on May 30. Doug Hie will drive the winner of $26,247 for Bax and his partners Goin To The Show Stable of Peterborough, Brian Grant of Whitby and J. F. Hayes of Sharon.
“I have to go to a wedding,” explains Bax. “I think Doug will get along with him. He was in the same race last week (May 30) so he got a good view of him.”
Bax’s other entry, Armbro Warden, starts next to the rail in the eighth race, but the veteran conditioner is not sure that will prove an advantage to the headstrong trotter.
“I’m a little nervous about the rail. That’s not a great spot to start from,” he says. “He’s a lot tougher to drive . You have to let him think he is getting his own way.”
John Thomson will pilot the rambunctious Balanced Image son on Saturday, returning to a role he assumed on occasion in 2001.
Armbro Warden’s season did not get off to an early start and Saturday night will be his first outing of the year in provincial competition. He heads into the event off a solid runner-up effort in a 1:59.2 mile May 30 and has dropped one second off his time in each start since May 10.
“He raced good last week as well,” says Bax, who shares ownership on Armbro Warden with Brian Parkinson of Sharon, Kenneth James of Acton and Aline James of Lindsay. “He is a lot more stock than the other one He is an �in-betweener,’ in between the Gold and Grassroots. I keep thinking he has the talent, but I don’t think he has the smarts for the Gold.”
Trailing Armbro Warden off the gate in Race 8 will be Jojo Griswold (Post 9), trained by Steve Nichols for his father Anthony of Peterborough. Another son of Balanced Image, Jojo Griswold prepped for Saturday’s event with a fourth-place finish in a June 2 contest at his local oval.
The three-year-old trotters will compete for a total of $93,730 in the six Grassroots divisions at Kawartha Downs Saturday. The trotting colts will raise the curtain on the Fraserville oval’s Saturday night action in Race 1 at 7:30 pm. The other divisions are slated as Races 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8.