FRASERVILLE, ON — After a record setting performance in last week’s elimination round, the two-year-old pacing colts return to Kawartha Downs on Tuesday afternoon in search of Ontario Sires Stakes Gold.
Wilma and James Mackenzie’s Northern Cowboy captured his elimination in easy style last week, cruising home to a three and three-quarter length victory in 1:55.1, but trainer Mark Horner is making some equipment changes in preparation for Tuesday’s contest in hopes of making the colt a little more manageable.
“I can’t call him crazy, a crazy front-end horse, but he’s a little strong in the mouth and if you get fighting with him he doesn’t like it,” says Horner. “Every time you go to shut him down he fights with you, and he’s a great big horse so its kind of hard to tell how fast you’re going.
“So we’re making another equipment change, going to a little different driving bit. Hopefully it will allow us to get him shut down a little more.”
The trainer’s brother Michael Horner piloted the Rustler Hanover son to fractions of :27, :55.4 and 1:24.1 en route to the elimination victory, but the pair are hoping to be able to rate the colt’s speed a little more from Post 4 in Tuesday’s fifth race.
“Hopefully this week he’ll be a little more controllable and we can get a little better fractions into him,” says Horner. “Hopefully he matures a little bit, and with maturity we’ll be able to gauge his speed a little more.”
The Mackenzie’s, who make their home in Peterborough, bred Northern Cowboy and sent him to Horner last fall. The St. Mary’s resident was not initially impressed with the lanky youngster, but as his athleticism started to emerge Horner had an idea Northern Cowboy possessed the kind of speed he displayed last week.
“I figured he had to got there to be competitive. Gold horses are supposed to go that much,” he notes. “It was a good performance.
“He took things pretty good the other day, so hopefully he can do the same thing this week.”
Among the colts the Mackenzies and Horners will have their eyes peeled for on Tuesday are track record setter Presidential Alert and high priced starter Warrawee Hero.
“That was very impressive. That’s a pretty nice colt,” says Horner of Presidential Alert’s 1:54.1 record. “And Jody (Jamieson) had one that he kind of got caught in with and was flying late. He had a lot of pace at the finish.”
Another local favourite, Presidential Alert is owned by Newcastle resident Sandra Smith and trained by her husband Mike Smith. The Presidential Ball son will start from Post 7 in Tuesday’s $130,000 contest. At $2,200 Presidential Alert was the cheapest yearling acquisition of the 10 colts in the Final, while Warrawee Hero was the highest. The Camluck son was knocked down for $85,000 to trainer Carl Jamieson of Princeton, Thomas Kyron of Etobicoke and Eagle Ridge Stables of Mississauga and will start from the trailing Post 9 Tuesday.
Kawartha Downs sends its first race into the starter’s hands at 4 pm on Tuesday, with the two-year-old pacing colts squaring off in their first $130,000 Gold Final in Race 5.
For a complete list of entries please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ekdftu.html