DUNDAS, ON — Flamboro Downs opens its 2003 Ontario Sires Stakes season with four Gold Series Eliminations for the two-year-old trotting colts on Wednesday afternoon.
To advance through the elimination round to the July 9 Gold Final colts will need speed and manners and trainer David Green is hoping Nobananas comes up with both in the fourth race.
“He trots consistently all the time, he’s a pretty honest colt,” says the Hornby resident. “But he’s a little on the lazy side. He’s not giving 110 per cent right now, but he’s going to get better as he goes along.”
Nobananas comes into Wednesday’s Gold Elimination off a pair of qualifiers at Mohawk Racetrack. On June 7 he posted a victory in 2:08.4 and then on June 14 regular driver Chris Christoforou raced the Earl son from off the pace and he finished seventh with a 2:07.4 performance.
“He won his first qualifier and we gave him another trip to educate him so he wouldn’t think he had to be a front runner,” adds Dennis Rich of Milton, who shares ownership on the colt with his brother Gerard Rich of Powassan. “He has just been a pleasure.”
Raised on Gerard Rich’s 300 acre farm in northern Ontario, Nobananas has shown Green flashes of speed and will benefit from Post 1 in Wednesday’s contest. In preparation for the event Green shipped the colt from his base at the Campbellville Training Centre to Flamboro for a schooling race last week and the colt delivered a solid performance, in spite of some early interference.
“Somebody stepped into him and he made a little skip, but he still trotted the last half in 1:01 after that,” says Green. “One of his biggest assets is that he’s got manners and that helps a lot.
“And I’ve trained him where he’s come the last three-quarters in 1:33 so I know he’s got a little bit of speed.”
Among the colts that Nobananas and Christoforou will face in the first elimination is How Is That Fair, who delivered a very impressive qualifying effort at Mohawk Racetrack on June 21. The Mr Lavec son rocked under the wire in 2:03.4 off a :27.3 final quarter with trotting specialist Trevor Ritchie in the bike. Scott McEneny of Waterdown trains How Is That Fair for his partners Warren Waxman of Dundas and Alan Alber of Thornhill. The trio acquired the colt at last fall’s Harrisburg Yearling Sale for $40,000 US.
How Is That Fair and Ritchie will try and grab the lion’s share of the $27,778 purse from Post 5 in Race 4.
Flamboro Downs’ afternoon racing program begins at 2:45 pm on Wednesday, July 2 and will spotlight the two-year-old trotting colts in Races 4, 7, 8, and 10. The top two finishers from each elimination will return to the Dundas half-mile on July 9 for their first $130,000 Gold Final.