GLOUCESTER, ON — One of Rideau Carleton Raceway’s longest held track records will come under fire from a deeply talented group of three-year-old pacing colts this Thursday, July 6.

Northern Luck established the 1:52.1 speed standard for the sophomore pacing set in 1997, but any one of the seven colts in the last of three Gold Eliminations on Thursday could rewrite the Ottawa oval’s history books. The list of entries in Race 11 reads like a who’s who of harness racing, and includes Pepsi North America Cup elimination winner Doonbeg, who will be looking to rebound from a bitterly disappointing break in the $1.5 million Cup Final.

“It was just some bad racing luck that came at a real bad time,” reflects the Camluck colt’s trainer James Dean. “I’m lucky I’ve got a group of owners who have been in this business a long time. They understand that these things can happen. That made it a little easier to deal with, but it was still a tough thing to take.”

Doonbeg trailed home at the back of the ten horse field, unable to recover from the miscue and ending the Cup dreams of owners Clay Harland Horner and Scott Horner of Toronto and Stew Firlotte’s Torlando Farms Inc. of Orlando, FL.

“We wanted to try him in the North American Cup, and we got there, but things just didn’t work out,” says Campbellville resident Dean. “Now it’s time to move back and tackle the Sires Stakes colts.”

Among the colts that Doonbeg will have to tackle from Post 5 in his sophomore Ontario Sires Stakes debut is reigning Gold Final champion Stormaway. Unraced at two, Stormaway boasts a record of 11 wins in 12 starts this season and already has one track record under his belt. The Northern Luck son sprinted around Western Fair Raceway’s half-mile oval in 1:53.1 in the May 26 Gold Final and has been enjoying a well deserved rest ever since.

“He had a little holiday and then I trained him back,” says Stormaway’s trainer Dan Megens. “There really wasn’t a race for him, so I decided to train him into it (Gold Elimination). He’s not a bad training horse.”

While Stormaway may be a good training horse, Megens says the colt can be a pain in the neck the rest of the time.

“He’s probably the most energetic horse I’ve ever been around. I can jog him five, six miles and he just messes around. He’ll shake his head so hard he’ll almost fall over and he’s always trying to reach around and bite the lines,” says the Hamilton resident, who owns the colt with Janice Van Nest of Hamilton and Peter Caetano of Ancaster. “On the racetrack, if there are other horses on the racetrack, he’s always trying get over to them. His ears go back and he’ll try and dive bomb them; he’s trying to take a chunk out of them.

“My father had lots of horse and I’ve never been around too many horses like him.”

Stormaway and driver Mark Megens will start from Post 2 in the eleventh race on Thursday and Megens hopes the pacer can pick up where he left off on his seven race win streak.

“If he gets beat either he’s a little short or there’s a problem I have to fix,” says the trainer. “He’s pretty tough.”

In addition to Doonbeg and Stormaway, the eleventh race features Clearwater Cup winner Eagle Luck and runner-up Banana Joe’s Bar, who will start from Posts 7 and 3 respectively.

The three-year-old pacing colts will also do battle in Races 7 and 9 on Rideau Carleton Raceway’s Thursday evening program, which gets under way at 6:30 pm. The top three finishers from each elimination will return to the Ottawa oval next Thursday, July 13 for their second $130,000 Gold Final.

For complete entries please go to:

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