FRASERVILLE, ON — Meadowview Sunny made Kawartha Downs fans sit up and take notice early on Saturday night when he shattered the two-year-old trotting colt track record in the first of three Gold Series Eliminations.
As the starting gate swung away from the field in the second race, favourite Heavy Raincoat sprinted to the front from Post 2 and veteran reinsman Doug Brown settled Meadowview Sunny right on his tail as they filed past a :29.2 opening quarter. Through the :59.3 half and 1:28.3 three-quarters Brown was content to let Heavy Raincoat and driver Ray Schnittker do all the work on the front end, then as the colts straightened out in the stretch he asked Meadowview Sunny for another gear and the colt responded with a finishing kick that landed him on top by a quarter length at the wire.
The 1:59.1 score peeled just over one second off the former two-year-old trotting colt track record, set by Gothic in 2001.
Charles Reid of Orono bred and owns Meadowview Sunny and Paul Shakes handles training duties on the Classic Adam son, who had a pair of impressive qualifiers on his resume before the Gold Elimination win.
At A Boy Eric finished one and a half lengths behind the leaders in third and will also advance to the $130,000 Gold Final next Saturday.
The second Elimination went to Lukes Thomas and Carl Jamieson who led from the quarter pole on, reaching the wire three and a quarter lengths on top in 2:00.3. Favourite Tyrone Dillon, owned by Dave Boyle of Bowmanville, trainer Robert McIntosh of Windsor and CSX Stables of Liberty Center, OH, held off third-place finisher Zoltar Seelster for the runner-up cheque.
Jarvis resident Jamieson owns and trains King Conch son Lukes Thomas, who also boasted an impressive qualifier in preparation for Saturday’s contest.
Boyle, McIntosh and CSX Stables had to settle for second again in the final Elimination when Ethen Seelster made a break just before the wire after leading through fractions of :30.1, 1:01.2 and 1:31.3. Kingdom was one-quarter length back and inherited the 2:00.4 victory when Kawartha racing officials placed Ethen Seelster back one spot for the break. Curlys First Lazer was another two and a quarter lengths back in third.
Oakville’s Rick Zeron trains and drives Kingdom for his partners The Camel Club Stable of Hamilton and Gestion Charest Ltee. of Montreal, QC. The King Conch colt was a $30,000 yearling purchase last fall at the Canadian Classic Sale.
The top three colts from each Elimination will return to Kawartha Downs next Saturday, July 20 for their first $130,000 Gold Final.