INNISFIL, ON — Georgian Downs will be flooded with two-year-old pacing colts on Tuesday as 92 youngsters gather at the Innisfil oval for their third Grassroots event of the season.

Making his second appearance at the Grassroots level is Easy Motion, and trainer Gino Cicero is hoping Tuesday will be the day when the cautious colt puts everything together.

“He’s shown a lot, but he’s just not helping himself out,” says the Hornings Mills resident. “Once he gets over the bumps here I think he’ll come around.”

The novice pacer’s bumpy journey to Tuesday’s event started in a June 10 qualifier at Mohawk Racetrack where he made a break just past the half. One week later he returned to qualifying action, this time at Georgian Downs, and laid down a gate-to-wire victory in 2:00.3 that saw him as many as 20 lengths ahead of the field.

“The first time he just got spooked coming around that turn. He saw something, got spooked and made a break,” explains Cicero. “When the driver came off the track at Georgian he said he didn’t realize how fast he was going because the colt was just going along so easy.”

Off that impressive qualifier, Easy Motion made his Ontario Sires Stakes debut in the Grassroots season opener and was within striking position at the top of the stretch when he made another unfortunate break.

“At Kawartha he was going along really good in the hole, but Steve (Byron) said when the horse came up on the outside he wanted to pace right through the horse in front of him,” says Cicero, who bred the son of Camotion and Rigatoni and shares ownership on the colt with his partner Marlene Heath of Hornings Mills. “Steve tipped him out and got him going and then tapped him and he got startled. That’s when he made the break.”

For Easy Motion’s next start, Cicero opted to tackle the Gold Series colts at Mohawk Racetrack on July 2. Leaving from Post 7 the colt got away 15 lengths behind the leaders and was only able to regain half that margin for a seventh-place finish. Back at Mohawk in an overnight on July 9, Easy Motion and driver Mark MacDonald found themselves on the outside of the starting gate for a second time and settled for an eighth-place finish.

“His last start I thought he raced a lot better, but the track was loose and Mark (MacDonald) said he couldn’t grab the track,” notes the horseman. “He said he couldn’t get him to pick up any speed, he was just rolling over the track.”

Through the colt’s four start career Cicero has been fiddling with equipment and addressing the hiccups that have shown up in each race. Heading into Tuesday’s event he is hopeful that things are starting to fall into place. Stephen Byron returns to the race bike and the pair will start from Post 2 in the sixth $15,000 division.

“We finally got a post,” says Cicero with relief. “He’s coming along nicely. I think he’s going to be a nice horse.

“He’s a big, strong looking horse. He’s got a big wide chest. He’s built like a three-year-old, people don’t believe he’s just a two-year-old.”

Georgian Downs sends the first two-year-old pacing colt Grassroots division behind the starting gate at 7:35 pm on Tuesday and the colts will dominate the program through the eleventh race.

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