WINDSOR, ON — Doug McIntosh knows that there is no sense peering too far into a young horse’s future, but the Wheatley resident is hopeful that three-year-old pacing colt Object Of Art is ready to face his first Grassroots test at Windsor Raceway on Wednesday evening.
“I’m not one to look at schedules too far in advance,” says the trainer. “We’ll race him this week and then look at the schedule. We just hope he’s good enough to compete.”
Wednesday’s outing will be Object Of Art’s first start in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, but he is no stranger to the winner’s circle at Windsor Raceway. In six starts this season the Camluck son has posted four wins, all at his hometown oval, including a 1:56.1 score on May 14.
“He was kind of a big, growthy colt last year and we knew if he was going to be ready it would be late, so we just trained him down and turned him out,” recalls McIntosh, who bred and owns Object Of Art with Michael Dockendorf of Chicago, IL. “We brought him along slow, and he’s gone through a few bumps and curves along the way, but I think we’ve got him in pretty good shape right now.”
Object Of Art ran into one hiccup in his preparation for the season opening Grassroots event when he came up sick following a May 1 start at Woodbine Racetrack. Fortunately McIntosh was able to catch and treat the illness in its early stages and the gelding seems to have bounced right back to the form that saw him win his first three lifetime starts.
“When we raced him in Toronto he didn’t meet my expectations and we found out he was carrying a little bug,” explains the veteran horseman. “We got some medicine into him and cleared him up and went back to Windsor (May 14). He raced good there and he trained good this week, so hopefully he puts in a good performance.”
Object Of Art will start from Post 6 in the tenth race on Wednesday, and while McIntosh would like to have landed a post closer to the rail, the gelding’s May 14 victory came from Post 7.
“The post is kind of miserable,” says McIntosh. “And post means everything in these races. Two or three bad draws can be the difference between whether you’re in a Final or not.”
Jason Brewer engineered the May 14 win, plus two of the gelding’s other triumphs over the Windsor oval, and the 28-year-old reinsman will return to the race bike on Wednesday.
“He knows the colt and he knows the track,” says McIntosh. “He’s a good young driver. I think he’ll do a good job.”
The pair will face four veterans of the Grassroots program in Race 10, and three other newcomers including Trouball, who was a 1:53 winner at Woodbine Racetrack on April 24.
Eleven $15,000 divisions of three-year-old pacing colts will compete over the Windsor Raceway oval on Wednesday, kicking off their 2006 season in Races 1, 2, 4 through 8, and 10 through 13. The first division rolls up behind the starting gate at 7 pm.
For complete results please go to:
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/entries/data/ewrfwe.html