ELORA, ON — Grand River Raceway gears up for two outstanding weeks of harness racing this Friday, with Gold Eliminations for the two-year-old trotting colts.

The top three colts from each elimination will return to the Elora oval on Civic Holiday Monday (Aug. 1) for their Gold Final, part of Grand River Raceway’s annual Industry Day program, and trainer Paula Wellwood is hoping one of her colts can earn a return ticket to the popular event. The Cambridge resident will harness Was It A Dream in Race 10, while her partner Mike Keeling sends out Gripit N Ripit in Race 6.

“It’s too early to compare them,” says Wellwood of the pair, who posted almost identical Grassroots victories in the July 14 season opener at Hiawatha Horse Park. “They have trained together a couple of times, but right now I think they are one-to-one.”

Wellwood shares ownership on Was It A Dream with driver Paul MacDonell of Guelph and admits it was MacDonell’s idea to move the Striking Sahbra colt up to the Gold for his second Ontario Sires Stakes test.

“Personally I would have rather went to the next Grassroots, but my partner wanted to go to the Gold, and you see who my partner is,” says Wellwood with a chuckle. “He likes to step up, but I like a little consistency, so we compromised and I said, �Okay, we’ll give it a try and we’ll see.'”

Was It A Dream will make his Gold debut from Post 3 in the tenth race and will be looking for a less hair raising trip around the Grand River oval than he got at Hiawatha.

“There were geese on the track, they had to refund the whole race,” explains Wellwood. “He made a break, but he was able to recover and caught the field. He trotted very well.”

The colt lost about eight lengths after the geese interfered with things, then trotted strongly through the last half to get up for the one and a quarter length victory in 2:04.2.

“He’s a nice little horse and he’s very honest,” says Wellwood of the $47,000 US yearling purchase. “He’s not very big and he’s very thick. I like to say that he’s as wide as he is tall. He carries a lot of weight; he doesn’t miss many meals.”

Beyond the early stage of their careers, Was It A Dream and Gripit N Ripit’s physical statures also make them difficult to compare — Gripit N Ripit is as tall and lanky as Was It A Dream is short and stocky.

By Ontario Sires Stakes super-sire Balanced Image and out of Soignee Kash, Gripit N Ripit is a full brother to $149,005 winner Captain Brady and Wellwood says the gelding shows signs of being as unpredictable as his elder brother.

“He’s a Balanced Image, so he’s got the quirks,” says the trainer, who shares ownership on Gripit N Ripit with breeder Diane Ingham of Mount Pleasant and Fred Mansoor of Toronto. “He shows a tendency to get a little hot, but we’re controlling it so far.”

Although there were no geese involved, Gripit N Ripit also had to overcome an early break to score his Grassroots victory at Hiawatha, regaining more than 11 lengths en route to matching his stablemate’s one and a quarter length margin of victory and 2:04.2 clocking.

MacDonell will also pilot Gripit N Ripit on Friday, sending him after a top three finish from Post 7 in the sixth race. The other Gold Elimination is scheduled as Race 8 on Grand River Raceway’s Friday evening program, which gets under way at 7:27 pm.

For a complete list of entries please go to:

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/egrvrfr.html