SUDBURY, ON — Sudbury Downs fans get a second straight dose of Grassroots wild card excitement when the two-year-old pacing colts arrive in town on Saturday night for seven divisions.
Leading the charge of talented young pacers is Passion Lincoln, who sits atop the division standings with a flawless record in three Grassroots starts. The Carl Jamieson trainee will make his bid for a fourth straight win from Post 5 in the twelfth race on Saturday and the veteran conditioner is optimistic about Passion Lincoln’s chances.
“He looks pretty good in there,” says the Princeton resident. “And he’s versatile, you can take him back or leave with him depending on where you draw and what track you’re racing on.”
Two of Passion Lincoln’s Grassroots victories came off front-end efforts, while his Aug. 24 victory at Dresden Raceway saw him sit off the pace and power home in the stretch to score the win.
In addition to his Grassroots engagements, Passion Lincoln competed in the Battle Of Waterloo at Elmira Raceway where he finished third in his July 25 elimination and then made an uncharacteristic break in the Consolation to finish off the board. The break put a halt to any thoughts Jamieson and his fellow owners, Gerald Ross of Downsview, Edward Smith of Mississauga and Brian Paquet of Quebec, QC, had of sending the Village Jiffy son up against the Gold Series colts, convincing them to stick with the Grassroots program for the remainder of the colt’s two-year-old season.
“I toyed with going to the Gold, but he made a break in the Battle Of Waterloo Consolation so I just said, “To heck with it, I’ll race him in the Grassroots,”” says Jamieson. “You might as well go where you can win as go where you’ll get beat.”
As long as Passion Lincoln stays healthy, Jamieson’s challenge over the next two months is to maintain the colt’s physical and mental fitness in preparation for the Grassroots Semifinal.
“I’ll try and keep him fresh so he can make the Final,” says the trainer, whose number two colt Red Star Bubba is out for the remainder of the season with an injury. “You can’t get too greedy or you’ll end up with nothing. They only have so many races in them and if you take them all out at once you have nothing left.”
Aside from the remaining Grassroots events the one spot Jamieson may start Passion Lincoln is in the Sept. 13 Nassagaweya Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack. Through his six starts the largest surface the colt has raced on was Georgian Downs’ five-eighths mile oval and Jamieson admits he would like to see what the young pacer could do at Mohawk.
“I’d like to try him on a big track,” says Jamieson. “He’s paid up in the Nassagaweya and I might put him in there, give him a shot at that.”
Jamieson’s son Jody will pilot Passion Lincoln on Saturday night and the young reinsman will have his eyes trained on Post 1 and Play For Silver, who sits fourth in the division standings with one win, one second and one third.
Sudbury Downs sends its first race into the starter’s hands at 7:15 pm on Saturday and turns the spotlight on the two-year-old pacing colts in Races 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.